


The Voice of a God

by Solverne



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Deaf Character, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Solavellan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-02-15 09:44:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13028400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solverne/pseuds/Solverne
Summary: Samahl Lavellan lost her hearing at age five. She was then pushed out of Clan Lavellan, but she was accompanied by her parents. Soon enough, she lost them to a bandit and ended up in a Denerim alienage, alone and confused. She was taken in by an elder woman who taught her to read and write. After she passed, Samahl was left alone once again.She learned how to survive on her own, keeping her head down and not disturbing anyone. When a strange elf appears before her one day, she offers him shelter and finds her life completely turned upside down with no hopes of it going back to how it used to be. Not that she would ever want it to go back. For better or for worse, her fate is now intertwined with his.





	1. Prologue

She glanced around in her small room, making sure to stuff her three most valuables into her small satchel: her roll of parchment, her quill, and her small ink bottle. All of those were luxuries, but she needed them to get by in life. When all the world sounded so far away and muffled that proper sounds and words couldn’t be made out, it became difficult to communicate. She, Samahl, had been born of Clan Lavellan. She’d had a relatively normal first few years of her life. She struggled to remember what real sounds were and to remember the sound of her mother’s voice when she called Samahl’s name, but...it had been so long that it was a terribly foggy memory, drowned out by the warbled, nearly impossible-to-hear sounds she had heard for the majority of her life. Sometimes in dreams, she would hear people speaking and various noises, but she wasn’t certain if she was dreaming them properly. When she’d barely turned five and the loud explosion of magic went off right by her ears, she remember crying and screaming in confusion and terror, blood draining from her ears. She only knew she’d been screaming because she could feel the soreness in her throat.

 

She’d tried for a couple of years to adapt and hope that her hearing would return to her, but it never had. Before long, without constant practice, she forgot how normal syllables sounded. When she tried speaking, making her voice louder in case she was speaking too softly, since she couldn’t tell, the other children just laughed at her and made stupid faces. She hadn’t spoken since. It was difficult to communicate, but she had gestures that she and her parents used for basic things. When she glanced around, she saw the pitied and irritated expressions of the other adults. Even as a child, she understood why. How could she help the clan as she was? She was nothing but dead weight. She couldn’t hunt, she wasn’t a mage, she couldn’t even listen to learn new skills to be the craftswoman or anything like that.

 

When the day came that she was kicked from the clan, it was no surprise. Thankfully, her parents went with her so that she wouldn’t be alone and probably die in the wilderness before she ever had a chance to get to some sort of civilization. They wound up in an alienage in Kirkwall, but conditions there were so horrible… She still recalled the awful stench and the filth of the city. They stayed just long enough to find a way to replenish supplies, then they pressed on. It was a long journey. A long and painful journey. Some time after they crossed the Waking Sea, a man approached them. Samahl hid behind her parents, peering around their waists to see what was happening. She saw the knife in the man’s hand just as she was shoved forcibly back by her mother. 

 

Her father attempted to fight the man off, but was unsuccessful. She’d seen his blood stain the dirt in the ground, just before he fell. Her mother rush at the man in a frenzy. Samahl ran and hid herself, tears pouring from her baby blue eyes and running down her cheeks. She saw the already bloodied knife pierce her mother as she fell to her knees. The man started to walk past her, towards Samahl, but she yanked the knife out from her stomach and forced herself up, stabbing it into the man’s back.

 

By time Samahl had the courage to rush to her mother, she was long gone.

 

She sobbed and wailed in mourning, but she knew she couldn’t stay there. When she had lost all her tears, she stared longingly at her parents, then grabbed what she could carry, and pressed on. She didn’t even know where she was going. Her parents had tried to tell her, but she couldn’t understand anything past the fact that it was a city. Before too long, she found herself in Denerim. Well, she hadn’t known the name of the city for quite some time. She’d found an alienage and wandered into it, looking desperately for any sort of help. Thankfully, an older woman took her in and it didn’t take her long to figure out why Samahl couldn’t communicate well. So, the woman taught her how to read and write. With those skills, she managed to find a job that didn’t require much communicating, but she had enough to get by and make a little bit of money to support herself and the woman. When the old woman got sick and passed in her sleep, Samahl had found brand new parchment, a quill, and ink in a small box with a bow, tucked away under some blankets.

 

Since then, Samahl lived alone in Denerim. The others in the alienage didn’t interact with her much, almost treating her as if her deafness was a disease in and of itself. She didn’t mind too much. She just kept to herself and practiced her reading and writing when she wasn’t working. She would go outside of the city walls and find a nice spot out in the forest to sit, enjoying the scent of the fresh air compared to the city.

 

Today was such a day. It had a beautiful blue sky with almost no clouds. The sun was warm and inviting and a gentle breeze blew through her short sandy blonde hair. The moment she walked past Denerim’s gates, she took a deep inhale and a smile tugged at her lips. Days like this made her wish even more that she could hear the birds chirping, but when it was so nice out, she couldn’t complain much. Even the feeling of her bare feet in the grass as she kicked off her worn shoes felt incredible. It was nearly a feeling that couldn’t be described. 

 

She made her way into the trees until she was well out of sight of the city and picked a tree to sit down and lean against. She did so with a soft sigh and set her satchel in her lap. There were a few warm sunbeams breaking through the canopy to shine on her skin. Her smiled never faded as she closed her eyes, basking in the sun’s glow. She wanted to practice her reading and writing, but it could wait until she’d had a pleasant moment to herself.

 

When something that felt suspiciously like a hand touch her shoulder, her eyes flew open and she jumped, her breath catching in her throat from gasping. The person who had touched her took a couple steps back, hold their hands up in the air. She clutched at her chest as her heartbeat raced. She  _ hated _ when people snuck up on her.

 

The person before her was a man. He was bald, though he didn’t appear to be old enough to be bald naturally. His brows were a shade of auburn, his eyes were a steely blue, and the clothes he wore looked rather rough. Judging by the bag on his back, he was a traveler. When his lips began moving, she tried to focus on them to see if she could recognize any words he spoke, but he was speaking too quickly for her. She could at least tell by his demeanor that he meant her no harm and he hadn’t meant to frighten her.

 

Once she managed to slow her pulse, she waved her hands in front of her, trying to indicate to him to stop. She recognized the confused expression as his lips stopped moving. She’d seen it time and again. She reached up and tapped at her ears, then pointed between herself and the man. It seemed to take a moment for him to catch on, his hands lowering. His lips parted and he nodded.  _ Ah. _ He then pointed at his own ear and spoke again, but his lips moved too quickly again. She at least managed to catch enough of the words to piece it together.  _ You cannot hear me? _

 

She shook her head, then held up an index finger and dug into her satchel. She sat back down on the ground as she pulled her things out. She set the ink at her side, spread out the parchment in her lap, and readied her quill. She kept her handwriting small so that she could entirely cover the parchment with more words before she needed to buy more. She also tried to keep her words brief to conserve more space.  _ Samahl _ , she wrote.  _ Deaf. _

 

When she glanced up to look at the man, she was startled once more. He’d sat in front of her, a respectable distance away, while she’d been pulling her things out. She had been so focused that she hadn’t noticed him moving out of the corner of her eye. She passed the parchment to him, offering the quill and ink bottle. He nodded and accepted them. He scribbled a little, then passed it back to her. Thankfully, he must have noticed her other words written out on the paper that were small, basic sentences. He kept his simple as well. She also noted he had rather elegant handwriting.  _ Apologies for startling. Solas. _

 

Solas was his name? She glanced at him with intrigue. He didn’t seem particularly prideful. Then again, she wasn’t running around with laughter, so she had no right to jab at his name. She gave him a small smile and nod, trying to assure him she didn’t hold it against him for spooking her. He then wrote another word on the paper.  _ Denerim? _

 

She took her things back.  _ Yes. Not far. Business? _

 

_ Traveling, _ he wrote in return. 

 

Samahl stared at him with more intrigue. It was strange. Most people, regardless of race, tended to veer away from her quickly when she didn’t speak back to them. It was almost as if they believed that they could catch her deafness. Or they just treated her like she was stupid. Though it angered her for a long time, she’d learn to let it roll off her back. There was no sense at being angry at the ignorance of the population for her entire life. She kept to her own business and no one bothered her, not even the city guards. It was easier for everyone that way. Yet here was a total stranger that sat before her and was giving her her first real conversation since she’d lost the woman who took her in. Gratitude and happiness swelled up inside her.  _ Need bed? _

 

His brows raised. Surprise, perhaps?  _ Certain? _

 

She nodded. She wasn’t going to very well leave a man who was kind to her, even for a few moments, alone to face the dangers in Denerim that existed for… Well, normal elves. He gave her a grateful look and she could tell he had said  _ Thank you. _

 

When she vaguely explained that she was enjoying the outdoors, he did not seem perturbed at all to continue sitting there with her. He did put a little more distance between them, but that was just so he could also lean his back against a tree after he shrugged his bag off his shoulders. Samahl looked at him curiously for another few moments, then pulled an old, crumpled scroll from her bag and unwound it. It was something she’d found on the streets and it seemed dull - something about some noble and his affairs - but she wasn’t about to pass up any opportunity to possibly spot new words and try to deduce their meaning.

 

She tried not to take too long so that she didn’t keep Solas waiting, but when she looked up, he had his eyes closed and his head laying sideways on his shoulder. Had he dozed off? She watched the light rise and fall of his chest. Perhaps he had. For a brief moment, she stared at his strong jawline and his lips, wondering what his voice would sound like. Was it low? Tenor? Did he have some sort of accent? Did he speak any elvhen? She didn’t know too much, herself, but she remembered the lovely way it sounded when the clan spoke it.

 

The thoughts made herself sad. There was no point in lingering on something she would never know the answer to. She tucked her things in her bag, then stood. She saw Solas shift and when she looked back at him, he had roused, blinking several times. Perhaps he hadn’t been too deeply asleep. She gestured for him to follow. He grabbed his things and walked at her side. She eyed his staff, hoping that trouble wouldn’t find him the moment he walked into the city.

 

Thankfully, it did not. There was no physical trouble, at least. She saw him glance around, though occasionally his brows furrowed and an unpleasant look crossed his face. She would just leave it up to her imagination what people around them were saying. She didn’t care to know. All she figured was that since he walked with her, others would be too wary about getting too close. 

 

When they walked into the alienage, she saw him nearly glare at the area. Had she offended him by offering him a play to stay? Perhaps he was used to better quarters. Her head hung a little as she led him into her small living area. It only had the one bed that she used and very little else other than a couple other articles of clothing she had and a couple of scavenged blankets. She waved her arm out, inviting him in. He stepped inside and bore an expression that Samahl wasn’t sure of. Was it concern? He raised his hand and made gestures in the air, magic crackling along his index finger. She stared in wonder. He was writing in the air with  _ magic _ . How brilliant! She’d never thought of anyone doing that before! She shoved aside her awe and focused on the words themselves.  _ I do not want to intrude what little space you have. _

 

She shook her head and pulled her things from her bag.  _ I invited you. _

 

He frowned, seeming to ponder it over.  _ I will sleep on the floor. _

 

_ No. I will. You take bed. _

 

He made a stern expression, something that reminded her of a parent scolding a child. She scoffed internally at that. He was not old enough to be her parent, at least. Still, he insisted again,  _ I will be fine on the floor. _

 

He was a stubborn one. 

 

They set their things down and Samahl offered him what little food she had. He refused to take any unless she had some as well, so she made sure to take a couple of bites out of the slightly stale bread. She was excited to have him in the little box she called home, but that alone confused her. She normally kept away from others and hadn’t expressed much of an interest in anyone before. She watched people and their normal lives from afar, though not for too long, lest she start longing for the desire of companionship. There were nights she had cried herself to sleep, wishing there was someone at her side to comfort her and understand her. Perhaps she was excited because within just a short time, she already felt as though this Solas understood her more than the people in the alienage, with whom she’d lived for many years.

 

She was so excited, she even drummed up more conversation with him. She asked him how long he planned to stay. He told her for only a couple of days, but to let him know if he was intruding for too long. She assured him he was not and likely would not wear out his welcome any time soon. She then asked if he had any specific business, to which he shrugged slightly and said not really. When she mentioned that she hoped she hadn’t caused him any offense by bringing him to the alienage, he denied that fiercely.  _ I don’t feel that elves should have to live like this,  _ he wrote in the air.

 

She had to admit that traveling sounded much more appealing than living in an alienage, but she couldn’t very well do it. She couldn’t hear when someone - or something - would sneak up on her, so she wouldn’t last very long on her own. She tried not to entertain the thought of it. She was in Denerim, likely for the rest of her life.

 

When night fell, after one more insistence, she slept on her small bed, but offered the blankets to Solas to use. He rolled out his bedroll he used in his travels and gave her the blankets back. She found it hard to sleep that night. She tried to imagine the soft breaths that a person had when they were sleeping peacefully, wondering what his sounded like.

 

The first day, she gave him a quick outline of the safest places he could go in the city before being met with trouble, being an elf. She apologized to him for not being able to take him personally, but she had to work. He gave her a soft smile and told her not to worry about it. She hurried off into the city. Even while she worked, lifting heavy boxes and shifting them from one place to another, she found herself thinking about Solas several times during the day. Where had he traveled to? What sort of places had he seen? What stories did he have to tell? Where would he go next? What was he doing in Denerim? There had to be a reason.

 

When she got home late that evening, he was there, waiting patiently. He’d been peering at one of the old scrolls she’d read through, apologizing for snooping. She explained their purposes and he raised an eyebrow. As she sat down, offering him slightly fresher food than what she’d had the day before, he pulled a book, a  _ real _ book, out of his bag and flipped it open, handing it to her. Her eyes bulged as she hesitantly took it, worried it would turn to dust if she touched it. It was written in the King’s Tongue, thankfully, but from the way the words were strung together, she could tell it was a complicated book. How was a traveler well educated enough to read it? When he offered to help her with it, she had to resist the urge to throw her arms around him in a hug. The back of her mind itched a question, though: Why was he being so kind?

 

She tried not to let that bother her. They ate and looked over the book, Samahl being extra careful to make sure that she didn’t get any crumbs on its pages. It was late, later than she should have stayed away, before they turned in for the night.

 

Several days passed like that. She went off to work and spent the money she’d made that day to buy food for herself and her guest. Some nights, he was waiting for her, other nights, she waited for him to return. He would always just say he was ‘looking around’, but never got too descriptive. She was curious, but didn’t push him. His business was his own, after all.

 

On the evening of the sixth night, he tapped her shoulder from behind, only slightly startling her. He’d been considerate in getting her attention without causing her too much fright, but she was getting used to remembering that he was in the small space with her, so she tried not to be too surprised when he touched her. When she turned to face him, his brows were raised.  _ There is music outside, _ he wrote in the air.

 

She gazed at the letters for an extra moment. She still loved seeing them hanging in the air.  _ Celebration,  _ she replied.

 

He glanced from her to the exit of her room.  _ Do you not want to go? _

 

_ No point. No friends. _ She also tapped her ear with a shrug. She couldn’t hear the music. She’d tried once before to go and enjoy herself and bask in the feeling of the party. However, it only made her feel more lonely. In the firelight, she could see all the smiling faces, stomping and dancing, couples leaning against each other and kissing each other. Friends were laughing and tugging at each other to join the dance. No one even stood near her. She decided she would be happier if she just didn’t go.

 

Solas did not seem pleased with this response. He pursed his lips, then held his hand out to Samahl. She stared at it with confusion. When she glanced back up at him, he jerked his head towards the exit. He wanted to go? She didn’t understand why he wanted to bring her along, but she supposed she shouldn’t deny him that if he wanted to go. Hesitantly, she slid her hand into his and he led her outside.

 

Torches were lit everywhere, casting the area in orange light, the shadows dancing as much as the elves were. When she looked around, Samahl could see a few of the elves gathered in a group, playing on old looking instruments. Judging by the stomping and twirling elves, they still worked just fine. There was a large fire that many people were dancing around, clapping their hands. To her, it all sounded like faint, gurgling noise. Solas’s expression seemed to be rather neutral as he looked around.

 

They walked around a little, people avoiding them slightly as they passed by. Samahl felt her heart speeding up once she noticed that Solas had not yet let go of her hand. She didn’t tug it away, though. The feeling of his warm hand wrapped around her gave her far more joy than she should have felt. The actual touch of someone was something she had not experienced in quite some time. When he did let go, she felt disappointed, then scolded herself for feeling such a way. He had stopped moving. He was facing another elf, one with a basket of flowers. Samahl frowned in confusion at his back. His hand went to the small pouch on his waist, pulling out a coin. When he turned back around, he had a red flower in his hand. He held it up, breaking part of the stem off, and gestured towards Samahl. More specifically, her head.

 

He wanted to put it in her hair? She felt her cheeks warm as she gave a small nod. He set the flower in her hair, just above her right ear, stepping back once he was sure it wasn’t going to fall out. He gave her a soft smile and took her hand again, leading her on.

 

The flower felt so heavy in her hair. Why had he done that? What was the point? It was incredibly kind of him, but...why? Perhaps it was just his way of thanking her for giving him a place to stay. Surely it wasn’t anything more than that. Still, she smiled as she followed along behind him.

 

They wandered around the celebration for a time longer. Samahl snuck looks at Solas when she saw his face, watching how the shadows fell across his face. He seemed interested in all that was going on, but she kept seeing so many other expressions that were gone within the blink of an eye. He was a strange man and she was fascinated by him. Still, when he finally told her he was okay with turning in for the night, she didn’t mind in the slightest. When she slid into bed, she set the flower beside her, staring at it until she fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

_ Her dream started out a little strangely. She was standing just outside of Denerim, looking out towards the forest she normally walked to, but there was no one else around. When she turned and looked at the city, it was deserted. Not a single person or animal was in sight. Even for her, the silence suddenly felt heavy. She started walking towards the forest, where maybe she’d spot some wildlife to give her peace of mind, when the hairs on the back of her neck raised. _

 

_ “Samahl.” _

 

_ She froze instantly. Was that...her name? That was her name, wasn’t it? She had… Had she heard it? There was no way. Even in her regular dreams, when she imagined sound, she couldn’t hear complete sentences or clarity of words. Yet she’d just heard it, cleared than she could ever remember. It was a man’s voice, of that, she was certain. It had come from behind her. She turned slowly, almost scared of what she would find. _

 

_ She stumbled backwards a little when she saw Solas standing before her, hands held up much like the first time she’d seen him. He lips parted and- “I am sorry. I do not like startling you.” _

 

_ Such clarity. His words… His...his voice. How lovely it was. It was perhaps the most beautiful, the most heavenly thing she’d ever heard. She felt the sting of tears in her eyes as her own mouth gaped slightly, her gaze intent upon Solas. He looked alarmed. “I’m sorry, but...why are you crying, Samahl?” _

 

_ He said her name again. He’d spoken again. Did he not realize how godly his voice sounded? It sounded even more wonderful than she’d imagined. It was the best sound she’d ever heard...and he’d said her name. She didn’t even try to stop the tears, but she put a hand over her mouth, gasping slightly. Her heart leapt into her throat. _

 

_ She’d heard herself! She’d heard the rush of air! She was almost tempted to try and speak. What did she sound like? It had been nearly two decades since she’d last spoken. Her voice had to be incredibly different. But then she remembered the laughing faces of the Dalish children in Clan Lavellan and her heart sunk back down into her stomach, weighing heavily. Even if she did speak, she didn’t know how to properly piece the syllables together anymore. She could imagine them in her head, but performing the act would be an entirely different thing. She closed her mouth and whimpered. _

 

_ There was another strange noise. Solas was moving closer to her. The shuffling of his clothes. The sounds of his footsteps on the ground. It was too much. Too much. She fell to her knees, taking loud, sobbing breaths. What was this sorcery? Was it Solas, casting some sort of spell? Was that even within a mage’s powers? But she had no other explanation on why she could hear so clearly! _

 

_ “I’m sorry. I was inconsiderate. This is probably extremely overwhelming for you,” he said quietly, his face apologetic. He knelt before her. _

 

**_No,_ ** _ she wanted to say.  _ **_Please speak more. Don’t stop. Let me hear everything you have to say._ ** _ Instead, she whimpered again. She shook her head at him. _

 

_ He pondered for a moment. “This...has made you happy?” She nodded and relief showed on his face. “I see. I am glad, then. I am curious, though… Will you not speak?” _

 

_ She was tempted, she really was. When she averted her eyes, he hummed in his throat. Creators, even that sounded positively radiant.  _

 

_ “I assure you, you have nothing to fear from me.” _

 

_ He said it with such confidence. She looked back at him, as if questioning him. When his expression didn’t shift, she took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself. “So...las…” she muttered, instantly feeling embarrassed. She had probably pronounced it some stupid way and the tones in the syllables of his name didn’t go together at all. Her tongue felt heavy and awkward in her mouth. _

 

_ However, his smiled broadened. “There. Could you hear yourself, as well? Try again. My name is Solas.” _

 

_ With the pronunciation, she felt more assured. She tried it again, a little louder. “Solas…” Her voice sounded incredibly foreign to her ears. It was high, higher than his, for certain. It just sounded...gravelly. Unsure. Unpracticed. Nothing like the musical lilt in his voice. _

 

_ “Excellent,” he praised her. “I wasn’t certain if this would work.” _

 

_ “H-how…?” She hoped he would understand. She didn’t want to try and speak too much and butcher the spoken language. _

 

_ “Do you know what a somniari is?” _

 

_ She shook her head. So, he explained to her. He kept talking, more and more. She listened, she really did, but it was hard to focus when she was just wanting to close her eyes and listen to the sound of his voice forever, not the words he was speaking. The most she understood was he was a talented mage that could go inside of other’s dreams because of the Fade. The Fade was something she wasn’t too familiar with. She just knew it was something that existed. She wasn’t a mage herself and hadn’t been around the clan long enough to learn and the old lady that took her in taught her nothing of it.  _

 

_ When he stopped, she almost leaned forward. She didn’t want him to stop speaking. Panic then set in. He was a traveler. He was set to leave soon. When he left, did that mean she could never do this again? Would he even do it for her again, if she asked? “Take m-...me...with you?” _

 

_ The question seemed to startle him. He looked towards the ground. Not a good sign. “I...would not recommend it. It is dangerous out there in the world. You are much safer here.” _

 

_ “I want...to.” _

 

_ “Do you know how to fight?” _

 

_ Her head hung in shame. She knew she was asking for something incredibly unreasonable, but the thought of not hearing his voice again pained her deeply. Still, she mumbled, “You...te-teach me?” _

 

_ “I’m afraid I would not be a very good teacher,” he said apologetically. “I’m sorry, Samahl. Again, this was inconsiderate of me. I was grateful to you for all you’ve done for me and I…” He narrowed his eyes. “I can see that your spirit is bright. Much brighter than all that is around you, but you are smothered here. Yet...out there,” he gestured towards the forest, “is even more dangerous than what you face here. I just...wanted to bring a little bit of joy into your life before I moved on.” _

 

_ Her tears flowed even more. A little bit of joy? Just having him around had brought her that much. For him to cast some spell and visit her dreams so that she could hear?! That was something that simply couldn’t be described. What he had just done, even once, meant more to her than anything else in the entire world.  _

 

_ “I am sorry. I will be gone by time you wake.” _

 

_ She inhaled sharply, but he faded away when she blinked. She looked around hurriedly, searching desperately for him. “Solas!!” she shouted, so loud to her ears, but she didn’t care. Why had he said that? Had he mistaken her tears for those of sorrow? Was he worried he had made a mistake? Why was he running away? _

 

_ She just wanted to wake up. Wake up. Wake up… She needed to see him, even if she couldn’t hear his voice in the waking world. _

 

**_Please…_ **

 

* * *

 

She gasped as she woke, feeling the wetness on her cheeks from her tears. She whipped her head around and said Solas’s name. She felt the vibration in her throat, but no sound met her ears. The world was silent once more and Solas was not in his bedroll. His bedroll wasn’t even there.

 

That wasn’t possible! How had he left already?! She looked towards the exit with desperation. She flew out of bed and dressed herself. She threw her things into her satchel and without looking back, she ran out of the alienage. It was very early, but life had already begun stirring in the city. She saw a few people rising and beginning their day. She paid them no mind. She ran for the gates, her bare feet racing across the stone.

 

When she came to the gate, she came to a halt, glancing around. There! She spotted a figure in the distance. It could only be him. She chased after him with no hesitation. It didn’t matter that she’d barely known him a week. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know that much about him. He didn’t know that much about her. She didn’t care that she was still being reckless, asking for something that would still likely not happen, but she had to try. She didn’t want to just stay there when she’d found someone who understood her, treated her like a person, and offered to teach her. She  _ needed _ to go.

 

He had stopped and turned, his eyes a little wide at seeing her, running towards him. She took a breath again and called his name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome, everyone! This will be a slowly-updated long story that I will work on in my spare time. The credit of the title goes to my close friend Hansaera, who you can find on Tumblr. :)
> 
> I look forward to fleshing out Samahl and learning more about her. I have been outlining the story and am slowly getting a feeling of where it is going to go. I hope you all enjoy the ride! Always feel free to let me know what you think, ideas you have of your own, things you would like to see, etc.
> 
> See you all soon!


	2. Chapter 2

Hey, everyone! Check out this [amazing artwork](http://kawereen.tumblr.com/image/171097410782) I commissioned from [Kawereen](kawereen.tumblr.com) to create Samahl! It turned out beautifully~

 

* * *

 

Her shoulders were beginning to ache with the added weight that she wasn't yet used to. Samahl now had a bow on her back, which rested overtop a large bag that Solas had gotten her that actually had straps. She was helping him to carry a few supplies and her own bedroll. Her satchel was still present, resting only on one shoulder and crossing her chest, bouncing off of her hip. At her other hip was the quiver full of arrows, which had so far only been fired at trees or other stationary targets. She wasn’t going to complain. She was happy enough that he had agreed to get her  _ something _ to defend herself with, not that she was any good with the bow yet. Each evening after they stopped, started a fire, and ate, Solas would point out a target to her for her to practice shooting at. He did his best to try and demonstrate the proper stance for her, but it required him having to touch her since he couldn’t explain it aloud. She managed to not get flustered as his slender fingers and strong hands grazed along her, only touching her as much as was necessary for her to grasp what he was trying to show her.

 

She managed, but it wasn’t easy.

 

Her left hand and the fingers on her right were beginning to form calluses from all the practice she was putting in during the evenings. It was an odd feeling. Her hands were already a bit rough from doing hard physical work for many years of her life, but these calluses were different. They burned, almost. She kept pushing through her discomfort until her arms shook, weary from drawing the bowstring back time and again for a couple of hours. Whenever it came time for dinner, Solas would stand off to the side, just within her peripheral, waiting for her to finish the shot she was practicing.

 

Thankfully, for their slow journey thus far, they had come across neither bandits nor any bad weather. They had no tent to sleep under, only their bedrolls. Solas assured her that he would keep an eye on the weather and find them shelter if they needed it. She wondered where they would find any. Their days of walking had been in nearly nothing but forest and they hadn’t passed any caves or anything of that nature. They’d passed by a couple of houses, but she doubted that he stopped and stayed with just anyone. That thought made her smile softly to herself. It was likely because she was an elf and not human, but she still liked to think that she was just a little special. Just a little.

 

All Samahl currently knew was that they were heading further south. Why, she wasn’t positive. She’d asked Solas if he had any plans in mind, but he just kept saying he was looking for something and that he would know it when he saw it. That was enough for her. She did not care what his purpose was or what his goals were. She was just going to stay with him. She did tell him to let her know if he had any ideas of what he was looking for so that she could help keep her eyes peeled. He contemplated this, then told her anything that looked like ruins.

 

This piqued her interest, but they pressed on before she could ask further questions. It wasn’t easy to have a conversation while they weren’t focused on each other. Solas didn’t know her signs well enough and she couldn’t write well while on the move. It frustrated her slightly, but she just kept moving, adjusting the straps on her shoulders to try and relocate some of the weight to a different area. 

 

At least in the shade of the trees, it didn’t feel quite as warm. It was only early summer, but it was already looking like it was going to be a warm one. She wiped a little bit of sweat from her brow from time to time, looking side to side, trying to peer around the tree trunks to see anything that looked like it may be of interest to Solas. Perhaps instead of him belonging to a Dalish clan, he wandered Thedas alone, searching for his own knowledge of the ancient ones that came before them. She had to admit that she was curious, but she doubted that knowing anything more about them would necessarily improve her own life, so she didn’t see much point in her own investigations. It wasn’t like she would be able to learn anything from the walls of Denerim, anyways.

 

Perhaps Solas had learned things from delving in other ruins? He seemed like a knowledgeable and sage person. Surely he had learned some fascinating things - maybe even things the clans didn’t know! It wasn’t likely that they would ever be able to compare findings, though. Even at such a young age, she knew that the clans guarded their secrets well from outsiders, even other elves. They wouldn’t just open up to a strange elf man that came wandering up, claiming to have findings of the ancient elves. With her lips pursed, she decided that she didn’t want to go back to the clans, anyways. They had chased her out, just because of her condition. Her loving parents had been killed because of that action. She couldn’t easily forgive anyone for that, despite the fact that they were her people and she carried their name. They likely wouldn’t see her as theirs anymore, anyways. She didn’t even have vallaslin. She was bare faced, just like the city elves.

 

She had no true home to go to. Denerim certainly wasn’t any home to her. She hadn’t thought much on the prospect of what a home was. Truthfully...she didn’t fully care. Though it ached in her heart, she had come to terms with the fact that she would forever be alone. There was no point in having a home if there was no one to share it with.

 

Looking at the backside of Solas’s head made her start to rethink that.

 

However, her thoughts were cut short when he came to an abrupt halt. She stopped moving and watched him, wondering what he was looking at. She followed his line of sight, but saw nothing. She was reaching out to tap his shoulder when he spun around and quickly grabbed her wrist, leading her off of the trail they’d been on. Her pulse quickened and she glanced around behind them. Had he heard something? Or someone?

 

Once he was satisfied they’d moved far enough away from the trail, he pulled her down beside of him to a kneel, hiding them in the thickets. She looked at him and he held a finger up to his lips. She nodded and settled down on her knees, taking slow breaths. Perhaps their good luck had finally run out and they’d been walking along the trail to meet bandits. She was surprised they had gone so long without it.

 

Waiting, however, was agonizing. She couldn’t see through the bushes - which was a good thing, she knew - so she had no way of knowing if they were nearby or not. Had they gone by and Solas was just waiting to make sure they weren’t going to turn around? Were they still approaching, taking their time and walking at a leisurely pace? Or worse, were they setting up camp somewhere nearby, leaving them stranded there and unable to move until the cover of darkness? She looked to Solas, desperate for answers. His brows were furrowed with focus and his lips in a thin line. When he noticed she was looking, he glanced at her and shook his head.  _ Not yet. _

 

The cramping ache in her legs made her hope they would be gone soon. She couldn’t lay on top of her calves forever. She kept her gaze on Solas while he listened. His head slowly shifted from left to right until he finally leaned back, peering around the bushes they were hiding behind. She saw his left hand glow with magic, but she had no idea as to what he was doing. Just in case he was preparing for an attack, she tensed, ready to pull her bow free. Instead, his shoulders relaxed and he stood up, offering her a hand. After she stood with a stretch and she looked at him, he wrote in the air,  _ Bandits. They’re gone now. _

 

She nodded. It was what she had thought, but him telling her that didn’t necessarily make her heart calm down at all. They’d nearly been in a fight. Would she have been useful at all? Doubtful, considering her aim was still terrible and she was luck to hit a tree from several paces away. She didn’t want to be a hindrance. She didn’t want to leave him alone to have to handle things himself.

 

She just needed to improve and quickly.

 

They slowly made their way back to the trail, Solas looked back the other way, just in case. Samahl couldn’t see anyone and Solas appeared satisfied, for he turned his back and they pressed on. The day was wearing short, however, and they were unable to make much more progress until he decided they needed to start preparing to turn in for the night. Samahl offered to go and grab the wood needed to help get the fire going. Though he seemed a little hesitant, probably after the close encounter with the bandits, Solas nodded. 

 

Samahl made sure to keep her bow and arrows with her while she wandered off. She kept track of how far she went so that she didn’t end up getting lost. Even if she shouted, she wasn’t certain how far the sound would carry. Not to mention, it wasn’t like she could hear his reply if he called back. She picked up a decent amount of wood, but she could carry just a little more. She stepped around a rather large tree and spotted a few more dead limbs on the ground. As she stepped forward to pick them up, she jumped slightly when she glanced up as she stood. Just through the trees, she could see something, but she couldn’t entirely tell what it was. All she could see was that it was stone. She peered over her shoulder, looking back towards camp. Should she risk going further?

 

No. She needed to go get Solas. Perhaps they were some of the ruins that he’d been searching for. She didn’t want to risk not remembering how exactly she got there, so as she made her way back towards camp, she dropped some of the wood, leaving a path for them to follow. When she spotted Solas setting things up, preparing for dinner, his head tilted up towards her, his expression confused. It was most likely due to the minute amount of wood in her arms. She grabbed her satchel and scribbled for him,  _ Ruins. Maybe. Not far. _

 

His eyebrows raised slightly, his face brightening. He seemed both pleased and surprised.  _ You know the way?  _ She nodded.  _ Then let’s pack back up. _

 

She helped him to roll the bedrolls back up and tuck everything away. She managed to keep her arms free so that when she started to lead the way, she could still carry the firewood she’d gathered. Noticing her trail, Solas walked alongside her and helped to pick the discarded branches up. When they made it back to the area where Samahl had spotted the stone and she gestured towards it. She saw the way Solas’s lips seemed to have begun to curl up into a smile, but he stopped it, pursing them together instead. She followed him as he took the lead, his steps slow and almost hesitant.

 

The closer they got, the more she saw and she looked at the ruins with awe. She wasn’t sure what this place had once been. Most of the walls had crumbled down, the blocks laying on the forest floor, vines and moss crawling along the surfaces. There was one section that had not entirely caved in yet. Solas set his wood down and motioned for Samahl to wait before following him. She put her wood down as well and shrugged the pack off of her shoulders and slipped her satchel off, letting them rest on the ground. She figured they would likely make camp here tonight. 

 

Solas took careful steps through the rubble until he came to stand by the section of the wall that still stood, a portion of the ceiling also intact. Though she didn’t follow him in yet, she stepped around to keep him in her view. He gazed at the surrounding walls that remained, almost as if trying to picture what they used to look like. There was something in his expression that she couldn’t quite put her finger on when she caught a glimpse of his face. It was almost like...wistful. Longing, perhaps?

 

Before she could ponder on it too much, he turned to her with a firm nod.  _ We will rest here tonight.  _

 

They went back to unpacking their things and picking a place for the fire. Once everything was all set up, Samahl sighed softly, looking at her hands. She knew that the aching and discomfort would go away with more practice with her bow. She was just in the transition period of using them in such a way, after all. She slung the quiver onto her shoulder and picked up her bow, gesturing with it towards Solas. He had just gotten the fire going with a spell, but he still nodded and followed after her. She only went just outside of the ruins, very well within sight of the fire and their belongings. She picked a tree and rolled her bow arm, readying it.

 

She nocked an arrow, concentrated, then pulled back with all her strength, despite her protesting muscles. She released it. It landed rather solidly just at the base of the tree, several feet below where she’d wanted it to go. At least she was starting to hit her marks. She grabbed another arrow and fired. It didn’t quite make it to the tree, sticking into the dirt in front of it instead.

 

Well...she was  _ mostly _ starting to hit her marks.

 

She went on for nearly an hour. Though she was weary, she was feeling proud of herself. She was starting to at least hit the tree more than half the time. She still only had very few arrows hit even close to her actual mark, but it was progress. Solas only stepped in a couple of times to try and give her advice, which seemed to help. By time it came to eat and sleep, she was all but dragging herself to her bedroll. Solas was going to take the first watch and wake her when it was her time. Though this was the safest way to handle it, she was a bit sad that it limited the amount of time they could spend together in the Fade, where Solas could work his magic and give her the gift of hearing.

 

Perhaps it was for the better. When she gave Solas a tired smile before laying down her head, she passed out almost immediately. She didn’t remember having any dreams - just a dark, heavy rest. She jerked - as she usually did - when Solas shook her awake. She wondered for half a second if it ever wouldn’t startle her.

 

He told her that it had been very quiet for the evening and that he hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. He still made sure to reemphasize to her that she needed to wake him should she even think that she had seen anything. She nodded and promised, waving him off to go sleep. Though she turned her gaze out to the forest, she could see out of the corner of her eye that he still hesitated before laying down in his bedroll, making himself as comfortable as possible on his side. 

 

She tried to remain as alert as possible even though her eyes still felt heavy. She couldn’t help it when her mind began to wander, either. More than once, her baby blue eyes shifted over to look at Solas, sleeping peacefully. While he wasn’t smiling, there was something on his face that told her that he was happy and content. She wondered if there was something about the ruins that he knew that she didn’t. Maybe he had unearthed some hidden clue about what they used to be. Or maybe he was learning about it in the Fade. He’d been trying to explain things to her about the Fade and she was trying to wrap her mind around it, but much of it still escaped her grasp.

 

Another night passed without incident, which she was thankful for. Every night frayed her nerves. She appreciated that Solas was trusting her with guard duty and even though he still made sure to put up wards, she was terrified that someone would sneak up on them because she couldn’t hear them coming. When the beginning of the light of day came, she felt relief wash over her. She went over to Solas, shaking his shoulder to wake him up. She felt him tense under her touch, but once his groggy eyes opened, he relaxed. She stepped away to give him room, watching as he ever so slowly rose from his bedroll, his gaze still distant and glossy. She’d learned it took him some time to wake up in the mornings. Though she understood his struggle, she couldn’t help but smirk softly at that side of him - the side she only saw in the mornings.

 

After he roused and they ate breakfast, Solas wanted to linger for a short time, examining the ruins. She nodded in agreement and remained relatively close with him as he walked through the fallen stones. She looked around all of it with a feeling of sorrow. The elves had lost so much, even their entire culture. Ruins like what she was standing in were truly all that was left of the old ones that came before them. Even though she was born Dalish, she didn’t truly believe in their ways. Having everything passed down by word of mouth was not the most reliable way to handle knowledge. Things would be forgotten. Things would be lost and they couldn’t be retrieved. 

 

Did the Fade reveal answers for Solas that she didn’t have access to? Surely, if he knew more about their culture, he would share it, wouldn’t he? Then again, they only just met not long ago. There were undoubtedly things he didn’t yet trust her know. She couldn’t blame him there. She would likely be the same, if she had any secrets worth keeping. She was a bit more of an open book.

 

The remainder of the morning was spent at the ruins, Solas combing through nearly every crack he could find. When he was satisfied, he told Samahl with a grim smile that he was sorry for keeping her waiting and that he was ready to move on. She assured him that he had no reason to apologize to her.

 

They packed up and went on the move again. However, their pace seemed more relaxed today. Solas walked side by side with her, looking at her and asking her to teach him her signs. She couldn’t hold back the broad smile as she complied almost instantly. No one had bothered to really learn her language, so sharing it with someone for the first time was thrilling. She noted the way Solas furrowed his brows and hardened his gaze as he concentrated, telling her that he was taking it seriously. It must have done him some good, because he caught on rather well. He attempted small, basic sentences, such as introducing himself and trying to make sure he had the letters all correct. She had to right him a couple of times, but he never seemed flustered. He would tilt his head slightly and frown, then try again immediately.

 

It turned out that they would need to spend one more night in the forest before they got through it and came out somewhere else in Ferelden. “Do you have somewhere in mind that we’re going?” she asked with her hands.

 

He paused, slowly trying to sort through the information in his head, deciphering her signs. When he struggled for a moment too long, she broke out into a soft smile and reached for her parchment and quill. She wrote her question down and as Solas read it, he made a face of realization, mimicking one of her signs he hadn’t caught. He then raised his hand and held up his index and middle finger and stuck out his thumb, just like if he’d been showing off the number three with his digits. He then brought them together in a pinching motion to tell her, “No.” He then spelled out slowly, “Just a town with elves.”

 

She nodded, then gave him a praising thumbs-up on his letters. 

 

So that was really all he had in mind for some reason. He wanted to visit other towns like Denerim to see what the living arrangements were like for the elves. She doubted that they were much different, if at all. What was his reasoning for doing so? It didn’t truly matter to her. As long as there wasn’t any harmful reason behind it, which she highly doubted, she would follow him and see his personal quest achieved. She just had so many unanswered questions swirling around in her mind. How did he not already know what their conditions were like in cities? Had he lived far away from civilization for his entire life? Or was there something more to it?

 

Perhaps with time and as he gained her trust, those questions would be answered. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, everyone! I was definitely not planning on it taking nearly three months to get the second chapter out, but lo and behold, here it is at last! I hope you enjoyed it. We need to get through a little bit of regular travelling things before we get to get to the more interesting bits. :3 I hope you'll stick around and see how it goes...
> 
> Thank you all for reading! Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

The next alienage had made Samahl grateful for the conditions within Denerim. At least there, people still found ways to bring joy into their lives, find reasons to smile, and to carry on. In the first city they visited together, it had been nothing like where she was from. The alienage was more of a barely liveable slum with elves that were skin and bones with dark bags under their eyes. There were no smiles on faces. There was no glimmer of hope and life in their eyes. They’d passed by a completely motionless body of a man in the ditch. A small child was sitting near the corpse, hugging her knees to her chest. Samahl’s feet faltered, bringing her to a halt to look at the body. The young girl looked up, her eyes shimmering with tears, which left clean streaks down her cheeks. She looked back and forth between the two and her lips started moving so rapidly that Samahl couldn’t keep up. The girl leapt to her feet and grabbed Samahl’s hand, yanking it up and down. When Samahl turned to Solas with a slightly panicked look, she saw how his brows were furrowed and his jaw was set tight. His eyes seemed conflicted. He spoke to the girl. She dropped Samahl’s hand and practically collapsed on her rump, her tears still flowing. Solas passed her a roll of bread, then grabbed Samahl’s hand and led her away. His grip was tight, almost painfully so. 

 

When he slowed down and released her hand, she stretched her fingers before tapping Solas on the shoulder. Once she had his attention, she asked him what the girl had been saying.

 

His hands clenched into fists before he relaxed them long enough to tell her, “She said to leave before we die, too.”

 

There was a painful twist in her stomach, as though she’d been stabbed. That poor girl… Had it been her father? Uncle? Perhaps just a caretaker? Or maybe it wasn’t even someone she knew well. The body had not yet decayed at all. He hadn’t been dead long. With how his bones were sticking out, Samahl could only assume he’d starved to death.

 

She’d seen terrible things in her alienage as well, but...not so widespread as it was here. Even she was rather skinny, but not as dangerously underweight as the majority of the elves were in this city. They were living in their own filth, some were scavenging in the trash, some barely even had rags on their bodies to cover themselves decently.

 

Solas didn’t say a word until he looked her dead in her eyes and said, “We can’t stay here tonight.”

 

She almost felt as though it was more so because he was angry about the state of their lives, but she was inclined to agree. There would be nowhere they could squeeze into to stay and she very highly doubted that they could get to stay at an inn. She’d seen the awful looks that the guards gave them as they walked through the gates, even though they had hoods up, trying to cover their ears.

 

So, just before darkness fell, they retreated outside of the city and put some distance between them and its residents. They built a fire and ate their dinner, though a terrible nagging feeling of guilt spread throughout Samahl. She wanted to turn back around and just give her rations to the elves of the city, but...then that would only cause trouble for Solas. Besides, what would it really fix, in the long run? Very likely nothing. Not to mention...would the people even be thankful? Sure, they treated her kindly enough until they learned that she could not hear, then they backed away from her like she bore a contagious disease. It was second nature to people who didn’t understand deafness.

 

Every time she looked across the fire to Solas, she could feel the anger rolling off of him in waves. It felt surprisingly intimidating to her. She hadn’t seen quite as fierce an expression on his face yet. When a chill ran up her spine, she shivered and saw the way his eyes snapped up. The anger seemed to disappear, if only for a few moments, to be replaced by something akin to apologetic. However, he remained silent.

 

They did not meet in the Fade that night.

 

When they were packing their small camp up the next morning, she asked him what he was planning to do next and if they were going back into the city. He shook his head. “No. I’ve seen enough.”

 

He said no more at the present. 

 

Their routine continued on. They walked along the paths, working their way to another city. When Solas would hear someone else approaching, he would pull her off to the side and they would wait out of sight until the travelers had passed by. When night would fall, Samahl would practice with her bow, determined to get better at it. She had offered at one point to try shooting a rabbit for them to eat, but Solas admitted a little sheepishly that he did not know the best way to skin them so that he didn’t waste any part of it. He pointed out that if they came across a hunter who would be willing to trade with them, perhaps they could give it a shot.

 

She asked him about the Dalish and if he knew where to find any of the clans. His lips pursed together. He said that he had only found one clan, but they hadn’t been particularly pleasant towards him. Samahl thought of her old clan, wondering how they were towards outsiders. She couldn’t remember well since she’d been so young when she’d left them. She could understand why they would be hesitant towards outsiders, in order to protect their knowledge and heritage, but why be that way when the outsiders were still elves? “If we come across another clan, might we try speaking with them?” she asked.

 

His nod came, though it was hesitant.

 

When the skies turned from blue to grey to nearly black, the two quickly began consulting the tattered map Solas had of Ferelden in order to try and find shelter. They couldn’t risk wandering the woods looking for potential ruins and not finding any. Lightning was flashing across the sky in the distance and it looked to be approaching fast. Samahl pointed at a small dot on the map - South Reach. Solas gave a slight shrug and tucked the map away in his bag. They didn’t have much other choice. They just had to hope that they would be allowed to take shelter  _ somewhere _ there.

 

They hurried along the trails, walking at a brisk pace. A few drops landed on their heads and Samahl looked up. She jumped slightly as she saw a flash of lightning and felt the rumble of the thunder in the ground. Her hair was all standing on end. She did  _ not _ want to be out in this storm. 

 

The drops soon turned to a drizzle, then to a downpour. Their cloaks did not provide protection for long before they were soaked through. It began to rain so hard that it was hard for them to see in the distance. Samahl could only hope that Solas had a relative idea of where they were in correlation to South Reach. She felt several more shudders in the ground that caused her to tense up. Her bag was starting to feel heavy. Whatever spare clothes and her bedroll were beginning to gain weight thanks to the rain.

 

Solas glanced back at her several times, as if making sure she was still there. One time in particular, he pointed once she looked at him and her eyes followed the tip of his finger, squinting through the rain. She couldn’t see much, but when lightning lit up the sky, she spotted it - the outline of city walls in the distance. They were almost there! Though she’d been starting to grow weary, slogging along through the mud, seeing that their destination was within reach, she pushed on with renewed energy.

 

As they came up to the gate, Samahl’s heart sunk. It was closed. Still, they approached. She spotted four guards standing on the other side, far more dry than either of them. They’d been standing around chatting rather lightheartedly, but their demeanors changed when they spotted the two approaching strangers. Samahl stood beside of Solas, waiting patiently as he opened his mouth to speak with them. He seemed patient, though exhausted, just as she was, most likely explaining their situation and that they only wanted shelter from the storm. A gust of wind plowed into them, nearly knocking Samahl off balance. She looked up at the angry sky, though not for long, since a couple of drops landed with quite a sting in her eyes.

 

The guards looked unsure. They exchanged glances between them and one shook his head, holding out his hands, gesturing with them. Samahl frowned. They weren’t going to let them in? When she looked at Solas, it appear that his patience was already wearing thin, his eyes flashing with irritation. He appeared to be still trying to persuade them. Though it made her irritated, she tried to look as meek and pathetic as possible. Surely it wasn’t too hard to accomplish, considering she was soaked to the bone.

 

The guards looked between themselves again once Solas finished talking. They took a couple steps away, turning their backs to the elves. Samahl frowned at her companion. “They won’t give us shelter?”

 

“They said the gate’s been ordered shut for the day. They at least seem guilty about leaving us out here.” His expression still told her blatantly that he seemed annoyed by the whole thing. Another large gust of wind slammed into them. Samahl didn’t even want to think about the condition of her parchment. It may not be salvageable. 

 

After another long couple of minutes, the guards returned and made a sort of ‘hurry’ motion to them. They went off to the sides and pulled at a crank, which started to lift the gate up. Solas took hold of Samahl’s hand and they slipped under. The moment they were through, the guards lower the gate back down carefully. One of them made a swatting motion at them and said a few more words. Solas nodded and led Samahl away from them. They hurried through the rain for another few moments before Solas glanced around and led them into a small cavern, where a fire was going inside. Some people were sitting by it, shivering and holding their hands up to the flames. Judging by their clothes, they appeared like those who didn’t have any place to go. 

 

Solas found a free spot and finally released Samahl’s hand. They shrugged off their bags and unhooked their heavy cloaks, letting them slide to the ground. They then sat and got as close to the fire as possible. A few of the people around it gave them quick glances, but made room, seeing as the two of them were more soaked than anyone else. Samahl shuddered when a chill ran down her back. She wished she had a dry change of clothes, but she would make do. Hopefully the fire would help dry her.

 

It took quite some time to even feel remotely dry again. The two had started communicating, but Samahl saw the dirty looks the humans within the cavern had shot in their direction, so she stopped signing. She didn’t care what they said about her, but she didn’t want them bad mouthing Solas. The last thing they needed were people panicking, thinking they were performing some ridiculous dark magic, considering Solas’s staff lay on the ground behind him.

 

Once she felt dry enough, Samahl checked on her things. She’d unpacked her bag and spread things out in the hopes that they may dry. Her quill bottle had thankfully been saved, thanks to the cork. Her parchment looked as though it may recover enough to be used more before it became covered in words. Her bedroll and cloak were still quite damp. The small bit of food that she’d had stashed away was all nearly ruined. They would need to restock in this little town before moving on. Solas’s things didn’t look much better, but he also had a book or two to worry about. From the way his brows furrowed as he investigated them, she wasn’t sure if they would be okay or not.

 

She watched the rain pour down the mouth of the cavern for a while, some of it occasionally blowing in thanks to the high winds. When the lightning flashed in the sky, it lit up and outlined the few buildings they could see from their spot. The longer she watched it, the heavier her eyes felt. They gone quite a ways that day and only to be bogged down by rain made the last leg of the journey that much more draining. When she gave off a yawn, she decided to move a short distance away from the fire, opening up room in case anyone else wanted to sit closer to it. Solas watched her carefully as she tried to find a spot on the ground that wasn’t too uncomfortable. She set her head down and told him goodnight just before she closed her eyes.

 

* * *

 

_ Whatever she had been dreaming before she saw his silhouette didn’t matter. There had been familiar figures, a large explosion, blood, filthy people, wealthy people, warriors with hounds… Nothing quite pleasant.  _

 

_ Just his presence alone was enough to set her at ease when she hadn’t even realized she’d been anxious. _

 

_ It was slow, the sound. It started out softly as the scenery changed around her into that of a strange, but elegant, hall. It shimmered with gold. Tall, exquisite banners with embroidering hung upon the walls. One by one, people filled the hall and the odd reverberation of echoing footsteps entered her ears. The people weren’t just people - they were elves and they were dressed immaculately in long, flowing gowns and sharp robes. After the footsteps came the shifting of the garments. Samahl could hear the light swish as the materials rubbed together as the figures walked around her. Next was voices, speaking in a tongue that she both knew and did not know. It felt both familiar and foreign.  _

 

_ As for Solas, he had been standing a short distance away, looking out a window. Once the scene appeared to be set, he turned to face her. In an instant, his ordinary garbs turned into one of the elaborate robes Samahl saw the men wearing. To say that it looked marvelous on him was an understatement. She watched as he approached, taking deep breaths and trying not to be overwhelmed too much by the sounds. Ever watchful, his eyes narrowed slightly with concern. “Is it too much?” _

 

_ She paused to consider her answer. She also had to take a breath after hearing his voice. With her motions, she said, “The voices may be a bit much.” _

 

_ At once, the volume of the voices dropped drastically, but it felt better to her. It was as if a pressure had been removed from her head. She gave him a confirming nod. She tried to not let her eyes linger on him and his clothing, choosing instead to look around at the hall. The elves walked with incredible grace, nearly seeming as if they were floating instead of walking. Their eyes sparkled when they smiled and laughed, but there was something else about their eyes. Something...that seemed...knowledgeable? Wise? It was a little strange. She’d seen a similar look in Solas’s eyes from time to time. _

 

_ She leaned back against the wall, watching the elves. “What is this? Why are their clothes so nice?” _

 

_ Solas came to stand at her side, glancing down towards her. “Firstly, why don’t you speak? I would love to hear your voice.” _

 

_ Her cheeks warmed. She was the one who wanted to hear  _ **_him_ ** _ speak more, not the other way around. Still, the least she could do was humor him. She took a moment to gather her thoughts, then repeated her questions aloud, speaking slowly and trying to get her tongue to work properly. _

 

_ He didn’t even seem fazed. He watched her with patience and his eyes lit up once she finished. With a small gesture, he replied, “This is just a small vision from the things I have seen in my journeys deep in the Fade. This was...apparently what it looked like during the time of Arlathan.” _

 

_ “Arlathan?” The word felt strange, yet comforting on her lips. “That is...the an...cient elves?” _

 

_ His eyes snapped back to her, seemingly alarmed. She suddenly felt a stinging guilt in her gut and she averted her gaze. “You...do not know of the history of the elves?” he asked softly. _

 

_ “I had no one to teach me,” she whispered.  _

 

_ “I-... Forgive me,” he choked out. “I didn’t not intend on sounding condescending. I was just caught off guard.” _

 

_ She gathered a meager amount of courage to look back up at him. “You could...teach me?” _

 

_ “I would be honored.” He gave her a warm smile. “That is, if you can bear on listening to me talk for long periods of time.” _

 

_ If she could bear it? Of  _ **_course_ ** _ she could! If that was all she needed to ask him about in order to listen to him speak all night long, she would have done something about it long ago. Realizing she hadn’t answered yet, she gave him an enthusiastic nod. He chuckled warmly, causing her heart to flutter, and shifted to stand before her. He offered her a hand and gave her a small bow. “Well then, my lady, if you would accompany me…” _

 

_ The moment she slid her hand into his, she felt a shifting air about her. She couldn’t suppressed her surprised yelp at seeing her clothes transform into something different than what she’d been wearing. She was now wearing a light and silky silver gown, not unlike what the other women around her were in. It had a long skirt that stopped just at her ankles. It had a cowl neckline and off shoulder straps. The entire dress shimmered as she moved, the light catching every movement. She looked back up at Solas with delight. His magic was truly something incredible. _

 

_ He led her off and out of the hallway. They stepped outside, where it was dark, but not too much so, thanks to the light off of the moons in the sky. Their light was also reflecting off of the surface of a still, glassy lake that was down below the balcony they were now upon. The air was completely still. It felt like a small corner of paradise. _

 

_ They seated themselves on a bench. Solas inquired, “Do you know much of anything about the history of elves?” _

 

_ She shook her head apologetically. _

 

_ “That is fine, don’t worry. I will share what I know. Starting at the beginning would be with the Evanuris - the beings that the Dalish call their gods.” _

 

_ And so Solas began weaving his tales. He gave her their names: Elgar’nan, Mythal, Falon’din, Dirthamen, Andruil, Sylaise, June, Ghilan’nain, and one that the Dalish call a trickster and fallen god, Fen’harel. _

 

_ He told her first what they generally represented, much as one would read out of a common history book. She did her best to keep them straight, but it was quite a bit of information to be given all at once. He would pause and ask if she needed more clarification or reiteration, to which she would normally nod slowly. She kept waiting for him to give off a sigh or seem irked in his tone, but he never did. He was patient and kind and sounded rather pleased, teaching this to her. _

 

_ At some point, Samahl’s eyes slid away from looking at the moons on the water’s surface and went to Solas’s face instead. He was looking out at the lake, gesturing occasionally with his hands. She was listening, she really was, but there was something...strange about the way he was telling the stories to her. Typically, when people shared stories and parts of history, they either exaggerated their expressions or they seemed serious about it, struggling to recall details. _

 

_ Solas, however, was speaking completely normally, never faltering in his words. He’d called himself a traveler, not a historian. People did not commonly know so much history so well. They would stumble, grasp at some details they were forgetting, their eyes would wander. But not him. His eyes were very focused. His tone was even. His expressions only varied slightly, from neutral to slightly happy. His lips occasionally twisted up into a smile or down into a frown, depending on which Evanuris he spoke of. The only one he seemed to be entirely impartial towards was Fen’harel. _

 

_ It was odd. He spoke...almost as if he knew these stories personally. Perhaps he just studied them at an extensive length. Perhaps that was what he was doing when he visited the ruins - searching for more history to learn in the Fade. The Evanuris seemed incredibly important, so it would stand to reason that there was quite a bit of history of them tucked away in many old ruins and within the Fade.  _

 

_ When he finished speaking of Fen’harel, the one he saved for last, his voice fell away from her ears. She realized she’d still been staring and quickly turned her gaze away, looking anywhere but at him. He cleared his throat and said, “I’m sorry. That was probably a lot to take in.” _

 

_ “It is,” she confirmed. “But I would rather know.” _

 

_ He seemed happy at her reply. “I’m glad. Please ask me if you have any questions, but we should probably continue this another night. It is nearing morning.” _

 

_ Already? How could that be? Why did time seem to flow so much quicker in the Fade? She wanted to sit there for hours and hours more, look around and explore, listen to his stories. Instead of her protests that she wanted to voice, she merely gave a meek nod of her head. A fluttering touch brushed against her arm, drawing her attention. Solas’s hand traced up and lightly gripped her shoulder. “We will be back soon enough.” _

 

* * *

 

She could still feel the ghosting touch of Solas’s grip upon her shoulder as she slid into consciousness. Her body ached from laying directly on the gather rocky ground, but at least she was dry again. She rubbed her eyes before pushing herself up into a sitting position. She glanced around as she ran a hand through her hair, nearly jumping as her eyes landed on Solas, who was stirring. He had laid himself down somewhere between a foot or two away from her! He had been so close to her all night?

 

She composed herself and turned her attention to the mouth of the small cavern. Though it was not all rays of sunshine, the rain had at least come to a halt. The skies were still a light grey and the scent of petrichor was strong. It would at least allow them to continue traveling. Other than the two of them, there were still two others in the cavern, but they appeared to be still asleep. The fire had died out long ago, the ashes not even smoldering any longer.

 

She stood and stretched, moving rather slowly as she eyed her parchment. She held it with care, then broke out into a smile once she decided it hadn’t been entirely destroyed by the rain. She rolled it up carefully and tucked it away, along with the rest of her few belongings she had in her bag. Solas had finally risen, albeit still rather groggy. He looked around slowly, seeming slightly dazed, taking in his surroundings. When his head tilted towards Samahl, she frowned with concern. Perhaps it was just the poor lighting where they were, but he looked as though he had a rosy tint to his cheeks. Had he fallen ill from the rain yesterday?

 

“Do you feel okay?” she asked him.

 

It took him a moment to respond. “No, still just a little sleepy. I will wake up once we get moving.” He gave off a small yawn, which he tried to cover with the back of his hand. Samahl couldn’t help but smirk a little. It was rather cute. “We need to restock before moving on.”

 

She nodded in agreement and finished packing her things up, though she kept a wary eye on him. He didn’t move any differently than normal, once he got up. Once they were packed up, they threw on their cloaks and slipped the hoods over their heads, moving out into the main area of the town. Samahl stuck close behind Solas, keeping her head low and avoiding making eye contact with the few residents that were out and about at this time of morning. Solas was looking around, undoubtedly trying to spot a merchant.

 

At last, they spotted one - and thankfully, it was a dwarf. Samahl had seen that the dwarves had been much more tolerable of doing business with elves than humans were. Solas approached him and began to engage in conversation. Samahl kept an eye on their surroundings while Solas handled the purchases.

 

It seemed like a rather simple little place to live. Much simpler than Denerim, to say the least. The townsfolk were just beginning their day and thankfully, didn’t hardly spare a glance in their direction. Perhaps they saw several travelers pass through. Solas tapped on her arm and asked for her bag. She slid it off and opened it up. The dwarf passed a few bound packages to Solas, who tucked them with precision into her bag, then placed a few in his own. Just as the two men were about to shake hands to conclude their business, both of them jumped and spun, looking in a direction behind Samahl. She shifted quickly and assumed that they had heard something. There was a man atop a horse that seemed to have just ridden in. Several people ran up to him, one person grabbing the reins of the horse, but the man remained on the beast’s back. He appeared to be shouting something, but he was too far away for her to try and read his lips. Just as a golden haired woman with curly locks pushed her way closer to the man, her face displaying panic, Samahl turned back to Solas with urgency. What in the world had happened?

 

Solas’s face was cross and grim. He said a few words to the dwarf, then quickly signed what Samahl interpreted as that they needed to leave. His movements were wrong, but she could gather that he wanted to get out of there, so she didn’t bother to stop and correct him. Instead, she corrected her bag and followed after him as he moved quickly for the exit, which was currently unguarded. Even the guards that had been posted there were in the growing mob of people that were surrounding the man on the horse.

 

Even after they were safely out of the city walls, Solas didn’t stop. It wasn’t until South Reach itself was out of view and they veered off the path that they stopped to catch their breath. Samahl, whose patience had been thinning with each passing minute, demanded, “What was that about?”

 

His brows furrowed. Was he angry? He made a grasping gesture with his hands. It took Samahl a moment to realize that he wanted her parchment and quill. She dug them out of her bag and passed them to him. Whatever it was, it must be something complicated for him to not attempt at signing it to her. It took several minutes of writing before he passed it back to her to read.

 

_ There was an explosion at a Chantry across the Waking Sea and apparently Circles throughout the area are beginning to have at best, unease, or at worst, rebellions. They are making it sound like a war between mages and templars. Our journey has just gotten much more dangerous. If you like, I can help you find a safe location to live at so that you don’t have to be near me. With my being a mage, there is no telling what more danger will be attracted. People had at least been a little tolerant, but now, there will be those out for blood. _

 

Why would she leave him because of that? She knew that she was signing up for danger when she left Denerim with him. She wasn’t going to leave him by himself as he wandered who knows where in Thedas. How could she even go back to an old life, anyways? “I’m not going anywhere,” she told him firmly.

 

He looked a little stunned at her response. “Are you certain?”

 

“Of course. I’m not a child. You don’t need to worry about me.”

 

“As you say. You are a woman who makes her own decisions. I’m sorry.”

 

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” she assured him. She just then took notice of his appearance, now that she had the answer to her question. “...Are you sure you feel okay?”

 

He wiped a few beads of sweat from his brow. “I’m just a little warm. Nothing to worry about. Shall we continue?”

 

She gave him a hesitant nod, walking along at his side with occasional glances. The last thing they needed was for him to get sick. She would watch him and request breaks when it looked like he may be getting tired. Otherwise, it would be a long trip to their next destination, wherever that may be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! Please let me start by saying that every single comment I have read on this story so far as been so overwhelming and kind. I am so incredibly moved that so many of you like it and can connect with Samahl or are fascinated by her relationship with Solas. I can't emphasize enough how over the moon I am. I had been slowly working on this chapter, but when I got one such kind comment a few days ago, it lit a fire in me to get this finished and have it up for you all.
> 
> I hope you liked the chapter! Please share your thoughts with me - they really do help in getting me inspired to get more written for you. :) I will see you all next time!
> 
> Also, as a side note - did any of you catch who that golden haired woman would likely be? ;)


	4. Chapter 4

_ Just a little warm _ , he says.  _ Nothing to worry about. _

 

Samahl sighed heavily as she sat over Solas as he was bundled up in his bedroll, his cheeks flushed and sweat beaded on his brow. She herself had developed a small cough, but she was in nowhere near as bad as shape as he was. By time he started wobbling as he walked, they were too far to turn back and go back to South Reach and they weren’t close enough to any known villages or towns. She demanded harshly that they take a break and Solas had finally agreed to it. They had made their way far off the path and set up a small camp. Samahl offered him bits of food, which he ate and was able to keep down. That much was good, she knew. If he didn’t have an appetite or if he couldn’t keep anything down, they would be in more trouble.

 

He had tried insisting that he was well enough to keep guard, but she wouldn’t let him. The most she did was allow him to set wards before he settled down into his bedroll, promptly falling asleep. She kept watch, both over him and on their surroundings as best she could. When she saw the glistening of the sweat from the light of the fire once it had grown dark, she was tempted to reach over and mop it off with her sleeve, but she didn’t do. Rather, she couldn’t make herself do it. It felt like an invasion for her to be touching him without his conscious consent.

 

She had coughed at one point and it must have been loud, because Solas had jerked slightly out of his sleep. She started to apologize to him, but he didn’t seem focused on her. His lips were moving - rather slowly, thankfully. She missed the first few words, but she pieced together:  _ something is in pain nearby _ . She waited for him to elaborate, but his lips stopped moving and his chest started to rise and fall in a steady rhythm, indicating he’d fallen back asleep.

 

Something about that slightly unnerved her. Something was in pain? Did that mean that someone was nearby? Someone was going to stumble upon their camp, wanting help? With her nerves frayed quite a bit, she sat more alert, though she felt like something would soon jump out at her from the shadows.

 

By the next morning, her eyes were incredibly heavy, her throat hurt, and her nerves were not just frayed - they were shot. She had been so relieved when daylight began to show, helping to illuminate the area better. Nothing had ever appeared, so she hadn’t figured out what Solas had meant. He, on the other hand, seemed much better. He woke the same as he normally did - slowly and groggily - but the flush was gone from his cheeks and he seemed to have sweated through his clothes, but no more was on his skin. When he saw Samahl’s state, he frowned with guilt, trying to apologize to her. She shook her hands, refusing to let him do so. He couldn’t help it that they’d both taken a little ill from the downpour of rain. He had just been a bit worse than her. 

 

He went behind the trees and changed out of his soaked clothes. When he reemerged, he offered to Samahl to let her get some rest before they started moving again. As much as she wanted to decline, insist that she was fine, she knew that the moment she would lug her bag onto her shoulders, she would feel like sagging forward and collapsing on the ground. She accepted his offer, but told him not to let her sleep for too long so that they could still get some distance covered. He agreed, so she unrolled her bedroll and put her head down, closing her eyes with a cough and a sigh.

 

* * *

 

 

_ There was an awful, unsteady rocking motion that made her feel queasy. A dank, musty smell protruded her nostrils. It was dark, hard to see, but comforting arms were wrapped around her on either side. She wasn’t used to that sensation. Who was it? _

 

_ Her mother and father? So then, this was their journey across The Waking Sea- _

 

_ No, now they were on dry land. She was small, hiding behind her mother before running off into the bushes as she was ordered with quick hand signals. She could feel the tears streaming down her face as she watched the man without a face run a knife through both her father and then her mother. Once it was over, she ran up to them, tried shaking them awake. Perhaps she was screaming. She could feel her throat vibrating. Her hands were warm and sticky with their blood. Her knees fell asleep underneath her as she sat there and sat there, trying to get the attention of their glassy eyes. _

 

_ Giant walls towered before her. Her feet hurt, her legs shook. She felt empty inside. Numb. Lost. Cold, both inside and out. She dragged herself towards the walls. _

 

_ People bumped her, pushed her, stepped on her, spat on her. She felt dizzy and sick. She looked up and saw the looks of disgust and hate. They looked like the people in Kirkwall. She wasn’t welcome there. It hurt. She hurt so bad. Why were they being so mean? She veered off to cling to the sides of buildings, but even there, she was hit and shooed.  _

 

_ She was now looking up at buildings that were more desolate and run down. People had the same ear shape as her. But they were talking to her and she couldn’t hear, couldn’t understand, she started crying, especially when they started walking away- _

 

_ But there was the old woman who was like her grandmother. She hugged her, scooped her up, brought her home, clothed her, fed her, taught her, found ways to communicate with her. _

 

_ She was taller, standing at the edge of the desolate buildings, watching the big dogs walk out with the men and women in armor. They were so cool, so big! She wanted one! Maybe she could even train it to- _

 

_ They were walking back into the city with fewer numbers. Men and women covered in wounds. The big dogs, they...they had blood around their mouths. It was staining their teeth, dripping from their tongues. They… _

 

_ They weren’t just big doggies. They were scary. They killed. She cried and ran back to the old woman, who was old and tired. She felt guilty for leaving the girl behind.  _

 

_ Even as a child, she understood death and appreciated the old woman and all that she did. She understood that it was her time, but...she wanted to sit and cry and scream and tell her that it wasn’t fair. She was always left behind. She was always left alone. Once the woman was gone, she wouldn’t have anyone to depend on, anyone to hug, anyone to love. _

 

_ She did just that, crying and clinging to her body as she watched her chest fall for the last time. _

 

* * *

 

Someone was touching her, shaking her, pulling her from her dreams. She opened her eyes with a sharp inhale, though her breath felt like it caught in her throat. Air. She wasn’t getting air. But as her eyes focused, she remembered who it was.

 

Solas. He looked concerned as he withdrew his hand from her shoulder.  _ Are you alright?  _ he wrote in the air with his magic.

 

“Bad dreams,” she replied before pushing herself up to a sitting position. Her body ached a little and her eyes still felt tired, but she didn’t feel as bad as she did before. It looked like it was about mid-afternoon. She’d gotten a couple of hours in. She slid out of her bedroll and started packing it up so that they could go ahead and get moving, but Solas’s hand brushed her arm, drawing her attention. With a slightly chiding look, he offered her some food first, telling her to slow down.

 

She took the time to eat, though she felt like a child that had been scolded. She didn’t want to hold him up. After the messenger brought the news about the exploded Chantry, even the air around them felt tense. She felt as though they were going to be attacked at any given second. It suddenly felt so much less safer. She didn’t want them to linger in one spot because of her. Yet here was Solas, ensuring that she was eating and getting rest and taking care of herself.

 

She felt so useless.

 

Once she had finished eating and started packing up again, he did not stop her this time. She balanced her sack and her bow and quiver, following after him once he glanced back at her to see if she was ready. He told her that they would be staying off the main road, but they would still be heading towards their next destination.

 

On they went, the images of her dreams still flashing before her eyes, making her feel uncomfortable and jumpy. It had been awhile since she’d had an unpleasant dream...or since she’d really dreamed much at all, excluding the Fade with Solas. She’d gotten used to nothingness, just a black, exhausted kind of rest. With an upward glance, she thought,  _ At least the sky is finally starting to really clear up. _

 

Since they had a late breakfast, they didn’t stop to eat lunch, but still took breathers when they needed it. At one such break, Solas dug into his bag and pulled out an herb for Samahl to put under her tongue and let it rest there. Apparently it would help her cough to go away? That would be nice. It was getting more sore and it was starting to hurt to swallow when she drank water. 

 

Perhaps about an hour later, as it was starting to get near time for them to set up camp, she’d spat out the herb, sighting with relief at the soothing coolness in her throat, Solas came to an abrupt halt. He tilted his head, looking off to his left. Did he hear something? Was it bandits again?

 

He spun around and gestured for her to follow. He set off on a slightly brisker pace than they had been walking at, his head looking this way and that, trying to locate something. She glanced around as she followed, but she didn’t see anything through the trees. When he came to another sudden stop, she bumped into his back. She started to apologize, but he didn’t look back at her. His head seemed to be tilted slightly downwards, but his shoulders weren’t tense, so it wasn’t an attack or anything of the nature. She peered around him, wondering what he was looking at and what he’d found.

 

Her heart seized with a painful clench. Several feet away from them was a small mabari pup...with its leg snagged in a painful hunter’s trap with metal teeth. Its mouth was opening and closing and it kept trying to pull itself away from the trap. It had an ashen grey coat with a small vertical white stripe going across its shoulders and down to the elbows of its front legs. Judging by the dried blood, it had been there for a while.

 

_ The blood, the dried blood around the muzzle- _

 

She immediately shuddered, but cut off her thoughts. She tapped Solas urgently on his arm. “We need to help it.”

 

“It likely won’t make it,” he replied with a remorseful expression. “Someone abandoned it. It’s starving and it’s been here for a time. It won’t be able to walk. We should put it out of its misery.”

 

Although part of her agreed, the poor thing likely wouldn’t live very long even if they did help, she found herself saying, “I’ve seen dogs walk with three legs. Please, Solas.”

 

“We don’t have enough resources or medicine to care for it properly.”

 

“So we’ll leave it here to die? I am defective, but you didn’t throw me out!”

 

Solas winced visibly and Samahl bit her lip. Before she could say anything more, he slid his pack from his back and approached the puppy. She did the same, hurrying after him. He knelt down and reached out a hand to pat the puppy’s head. It jerked and snapped its teeth at him. Samahl flinched when she saw it make contact with his hand, but he didn’t move away. She could see him moving his mouth, but since she was at his side, she couldn’t tell what he was saying. Soon enough, the puppy slowly released its hold on him and he managed to pat its head, little small red ringlets and tiny drops of blood left on his skin from where it had sunk its teeth.

 

_ They were scary. They killed. _

 

“You’ll need to try and hold it,” Solas ordered.

 

Suddenly, this idea didn’t sound so good anymore. Still, she’d insisted. She couldn’t back out now. Besides, it was only a pup, not a full grown war hound. She reached out towards it with shaking hands, but when she touched its fur, it didn’t rear its head to try and bite her. She tried to figure out a way to hold it so that it wouldn’t hurt itself further while Solas figured out how to get it loose. She put a hand under its chest, between its front legs, and kept the other on top, pressing down gently between its shoulders. Feeling the poor little creature trembling in her hands made her own fears lessen a little. Why did someone abandon it? It didn’t listen to commands or it was too small? It was only a puppy! The pup had probably wandered for a time, then accidentally tripped into the trap.

 

Solas examined the trap, then gave a small nod. He glanced up at Samahl, making sure she had the puppy. He then fumbled with a small mechanism on a side of the trap, which caused the teeth to spring back open and free the puppy’s leg. It immediately tried to squirm away, but Samahl fought to keep it still while Solas went back to his bag. He pulled out a rag, some herbs, and some bandages. He told her to sit on the ground and set the rag in her lap, then pull the puppy onto it. Now that the teeth had been released, the punctures were beginning to pour blood all over again. She could tell that the little creature was crying again.

 

She did as he asked, trying to gently pull the puppy up in her lap. It was heavier than she thought. She made sure to keep the mangled left back leg over the rag so that she wouldn’t get too much blood all over her. She adjusted her grip and gently shifted her hand from the shoulders to around the neck, not wanting it to nip at Solas while he tended to the leg. She moved her thumbs in slow rubbing motions, the only thing she could think to do to try and comfort the pup. 

 

Solas went to work crushing some of the herbs and mixing them in a small bowl, like a poultice. He dipped his index and middle finger into it and glanced once more at Samahl, ensuring she had a solid grip. He then rubbed the poultice onto the open wounds of the leg. The puppy squirmed and thrashed, trying to get away, but Samahl struggled to keep it still. Its nails were clawing at her arms, leaving long red marks, but she didn’t let go. Even after Solas stopped rubbing the poultice on, it still wouldn’t calm down. Solas ripped the bandages so that they would be small enough and he wrapped the leg as best he could on such a wiggly patient. Once he tied it off, he sat back, wiping off the remainder of the poultice on his fingers on the grass. “Don’t let her get the bandages off or lick the medicine.”

 

Samahl nodded, but caught that third word in particular. Her? The puppy was a female, then? 

 

She held the small girl until she finally seemed to calm down. She loosened her grip and let her turn and sniff at the bandages, but when she started trying to put her mouth on it, she gripped her more carefully, pulling her head away. Solas brought the water flask from his pack and cupped a hand, pouring just a little bit in at a time. The pup immediately began to drink and drink, lapping up as much water as he would give her. Watching it as it sucked down the water and then devouring the bits of bread that Solas offered her made Samahl feel...conflicted.

 

She was terrified of the creature in her arms, but she couldn’t help but feel pity for it. It was not quite so tiny that she couldn’t defend herself against some other larger predators, but she wasn’t big enough to have been out on her own like she was. In the moment, Samahl felt the impulse to save her. No matter the creature, it didn’t feel right to just let it sit there and suffer, nor did it feel like it was their right to make a call on whether or not she deserved to be put out of her misery. Maybe it was because some part of her thought about if she had been an animal, deaf and unable to warn her masters of incoming danger or to hear their commands, she would have been discarded or killed, too. For something that was completely out of her control.

 

Solas finally pulled away, not giving her any more to drink or eat. She stretched her neck out, sniffing the air, as if trying to get to more, but Samahl didn’t let her out of her lap. The pup didn’t need to eat and drink so much as to make her sick. After several long moments, she stopped stretching outwards and relaxed a little. She tilted her head up to look at Samahl, which made her tense a little. She didn’t feel completely comfortable with staring into those dark brown eyes. They looked much too human to her. They weren’t the eyes of a regular dog. They were much too intelligent for that. 

 

_ Why is she staring so much?  _ she was starting to wonder, just before the pup turned her gaze away. She glanced back at her bandages again, but she then propped her head on top of her paws. When her eyes slid shut, Samahl looked up quickly towards Solas, who looked to be suppressing a smirk. “I will start setting up camp.”

 

She didn’t want to just sit there and not do anything to help, but he shook his head and told her to sit with the puppy. She pursed her lips. Did he see how anxious she was, so this was her punishment for asking to help it? No, surely he wasn’t that mean. Still, it didn’t take long for the pup to grow heavy in her lap. She probably weighed a solid thirty pounds, give or take. She had plenty of growing to do, but maybe her growth was stunted? Samahl had no idea how to tell how old an animal was and something told her that she would be surprised if Solas knew how. Then again, he’d surprised her before.

 

She watched as Solas unrolled their bedrolls, collect firewood, and ready some food. The mabari slept through just about all of it. The scent of the grub Solas was warming over the fire must have pulled her from her nap, because her eyes dragged open and her head lifted slowly, as if exhausted but not so much as to not eat more if she was offered any. Samahl shifted and finally lifted the pup from her lap and set her delicately on the ground before rubbing her aching legs that tingled with that awful sensation when one doesn’t move for a while. She kept an eye on the canine to ensure she wasn’t going to mess with the bandages. While it looked like she considered it, she didn’t and instead hobbled forward, avoiding putting any pressure on her back left leg at all. Samahl stood and stretched, grabbing the rag to hand back to Solas - if he wanted it, now that it was covered with dried mabari blood.

 

He offered her a bowl of food and she accepted it with a grateful nod, but she didn’t sit beside him to eat. It was too soon to sit again, so she ate standing, feeling great relief at letting her legs stretch. The mabari looked between the two, then sat awkwardly before laying back down, eyes gazing at Samahl. She looked away awkwardly, picking to instead look at the flames. 

 

Once she finished, she offered to clean the utensils, but their spot was apparently not near a source of water. Solas assured her they would wash it tomorrow when they came to a river or something. Still, he took the bowls from her and as she gathered her bow and quiver to practice some shooting, she caught a glimpse of him letting the mabari pup lick the bowls free of scraps. For having suggested that they just kill her, he sure was being tender with it.

 

Samahl picked a tree and nocked an arrow to the string, inhaling and exhaling deeply. Her arms and hands were already burning as though she’d practiced for hours, but that was just her mind playing tricks on her. She needed to do this so that she wouldn’t be a hindrance. She  _ needed _ to do this. She brought her arms up and pulled the string back, eyes focused on her spot she wanted to shoot. She let the arrow fly.

 

For nearly an hour, she practiced. Solas came to stand near her, watching and trying to offer assistance where he could. Mostly, he praised her on how well she was doing. She had hit her mark several times, but for her, it wasn’t good enough. She wanted to be able to hit it around fifty percent of the time, as a good starting point. She would work her way up from there. When her arms start trembling from the use, she called it quits for the evening. She didn’t need to overdo it and cause more problems. She dug the arrows out of the tree and set them back in her quiver. When she turned around, she was startled to see the mabari balancing on her three legs, not far away, as if waiting for her. Samahl glanced towards Solas, but he merely gave her a small shrug, that damned smirk still noticeable on his lips. He was clearly amused by whatever was happening, but she didn’t see what was so funny. She didn’t want the mabari following her every move. That would only…

 

_ -the dried blood around the muzzle- _

 

...make things worse.

 

When she got settled into her bedroll, she watched the mabari start to sit right nearby where her head would rest at. Samahl’s heart pounded at the thought of those teeth and claws right by her head and she panicked. She jerked away and inhaled sharply. She fiercely pointed away from her and enunciated clearly, “ _ No _ !”

 

She saw Solas jerk from out of the corner of her eye, but she didn’t look at him just yet. The mabari looked at her and her gaze grew sad, almost. It took several long seconds, but she pulled herself back up and hobbled down to Samahl’s feet, which was the general direction of where Samahl had been pointing. The pup laid down and while Samahl was still not at ease, at least she wasn’t touching her or near her head. She didn’t want to see the expression Solas was giving her, so she tucked into her bedroll and put her back to him.

 

It was incredibly hard for her to fall asleep that night.

* * *

 

_ Large canine beasts marched in a line in front of her, walking through pools of blood. She was frozen in place. If she moved, they would see her. They would notice and they would come charging at her to tear her apart. She shouldn’t be there.  _

 

_ So why was she? _

 

_ She slowly turned her head. They were all around her. There was nowhere she could go without being trapped. She didn’t want to have the last thing she saw or felt be a mabari’s teeth sinking into her skull. Just the thought of it made her mouth dry and her hands clammy.  _

 

_ “It isn’t a ridiculous fear, you know.” _

 

_ Samahl jumped and spun to look and see who had said that. It was most definitely not Solas’s voice. This voice sounded more...jagged, old, worn, but kind. Perhaps that’s what the old woman’s voice sounded like. However, what was before her was not a person. Samahl took an involuntary step back as she tried to figure out what she was seeing. It was almost like a green mist in the vague form of a person that looked neither male nor female. The voice had sounded more feminine, but the gleaming eyes were what was throwing her off. Had it...truly been addressing her? Or was she making this up? _

 

_ “You must be Samahl,” the voice said. “I am a friend of Solas’s. I am Wisdom.” _

 

_ Samahl frowned. Solas had mentioned that spirits were kind beings that offer assistance to him and that he had befriended many, but she had never seen any before. So this was a spirit of wisdom? She...had never seen a spirit before. She wasn’t quite certain on how she should react. She didn’t know much about them, other than what Solas had told her, so she felt like she shouldn’t be afraid. _

 

_ Around the mist, it seemed like a smile formed on Wisdom’s face. “I’m sorry. I intruded on my own. I’ve been wanting to meet you.” _

 

_ Samahl shook her head. She started to raise her hands, but lowered them. Wisdom wouldn’t be able to know what her signs meant. But wait...if she had come on her own, how was she able to hear Wisdom? Wasn’t that Solas’s magic? She glanced around and saw that the marching mabaris had vanished. It was just an empty space now, the only occupants being Samahl and Wisdom. _

 

_ “Oh, this must be a little strange. Hold on.” The mist came to touch the floor (or what seemed to be the solid ground) and from out of it, a more solid figure emerged. It was the form of a young woman, much younger than what Samahl would have imagined that voice belonged to. She had short, bob-like brown hair, a round face, but still the bright green eyes. “I suppose this form would make it easier to talk to.” _

 

_ “A little,” she admitted once she got her tongue working properly. “Why did you come?” _

 

_ “I am able to feel your presence within the Fade since Solas told me about you. I could feel great unease as you entered tonight and I thought perhaps I would come to try and settle your mind some. However, if it is unwelcome, you need only say something.” _

 

_ Samahl did feel a little more relaxed, not watching the forms of war hounds marching through blood. That had all vanished. “No, it’s okay.” _

 

_ Wisdom smiled. “I’m glad. But as I said, your fear is not ridiculous and it does not make you weak.” _

 

_ Samahl’s lips twitched a little as she held her breath for a moment. It felt strange, hearing her worries be called a fear, but...that’s what it was, wasn’t it? It was more than being uncomfortable. Even just earlier, she’d dreamed about Denerim and the mabaris she’d seen there. Her childish naive thought of wanting one of her own, just to have it crushed once she realized that they weren’t pets. They were warriors, born and bred to do battle. She grew fearful that one of the soldiers in Denerim would grow cross with the elves of the alienage and set their beasts loose on them. _

 

_ Still, even for a pup like the one they found to remind her of that fear is what seemed silly. _

 

_ Wisdom tilted her head. “It’s like being worried of a sword belonging to a person who is just waiting for the order to unsheathe it. You have nothing to be ashamed of. If you would like, I am here and you may speak freely to me if you wished.” _

 

_ “About what?” she inquired. _

 

_ Wisdom shrugged and sat cross-legged on the ground. “Anything at all. You may speak to me without fear of judgement and without reservation. You owe nothing to me.” _

 

_ There was something about the spirit that reminded Samahl of her mother that she could barely remember. Something warm and inviting, as though all her burdens could be lifted and freed. Perhaps there were things she was carrying around within herself that she didn’t feel like she could voice to Solas for fear of feeling like more of a burden. But could she just speak to this spirit that she’d never met before? How did Samahl know she wasn’t just going to run back and repeat her words to Solas? _

 

_ She glanced back at the spirit’s face, patient and gentle and...sincere. _

 

_ No. She wouldn’t go back to Solas. Samahl could tell that much. _

 

_ She settled down on the ground across from her, pondering on where to begin.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, everyone! I came around much sooner this time - just under a month! Because all of you leave me the best comments to read and I can tell how excited you all are to read more. Nothing is more motivating than that!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Keep those comments coming! :D I'll see you all next time!


	5. Chapter 5

Even within the Fade, talking with Wisdom made it feel as though a great weight lifted from Samahl’s shoulders. Once she started talking, words didn’t exactly flow out, but they came easier than they had before. Wisdom listened silently and with full attention. She never interrupted. There was only an occasional nod or shake of her head depending on the sentence or story. Samahl had told her the story of her childhood and what it truly made her feel like.

 

She remembered the day she’d lost her hearing and she still got a slight tremble in her hands from how terrified she remembered feeling. The way the clan tried to adapt, but couldn’t and threw her out as a result made her feel lost and hopeless. It was just as bad as being discarded by family for something that was out of her control. Having her parents leave with her was the greatest blessing she felt she could have had. If she’d gone out on her own, she would have died, no questions asked. 

 

She still remembered the looming walls of Kirkwall, their first destination. They didn’t stay for very long. The tight confines of the alienage was stifling, but she wasn’t sure what it was that exactly caused her parents to decide on leaving. She still wasn’t sure to this day. All she could guess was that something was worse off with their alienage compared to Denerim’s. 

 

The journey across the Waking Sea had been another scary experience. Describing the rolling motion of the boat made her feel sick. She remembered thinking multiple times that the boat was going to capsize and they were all going to drown. What a horrible thing for a child to be thinking. She never got to go above deck, even when they hit a quick calm spot. She remained below deck, snuggled between her parents, clutching their clothing for comfort and support. When the boat finally anchored, she couldn’t wait to get off. Being on solid ground again would surely be much better than where they had been.

 

Until the bandit came along. Samahl didn’t truly understand what was going on when her mother shooed her to go hide. Even when she saw her father hit the ground, she felt panic, but not fear or terror yet. When her mother hit the ground and the man started approaching her, she felt convinced that after all her sufferings, at even so young an age, her life was about to come to a violent end. She was paralyzed and couldn’t move. She could still see the man’s murderous green eyes latched onto her, getting closer and closer. Even after her mother managed to get the knife and kill the man in return, she still couldn’t move. Every time she thought back on it, she wondered if her mother lay there on the ground, her head tilted away, trying to talk to Samahl with her final breaths. She never would have heard them. By time she finally remembered how to move, both her parents were long dead. She had been convinced that the empty feeling inside of her would swallow her whole.

 

She was about to start going into how she arrived at Denerim, but Wisdom only then spoke up, telling her that day was breaking on the other side and she needed to go. Before Samahl left, Wisdom gave her a kind smile and assured her that she would be there to continue their conversation if she wished.

 

When Samahl took a deep, slow inhale of breath as she stretched, she felt a warmth and pressure on her belly. She blinked a few times, then angled her head to look-

 

- _ to see a pair of fangs lunging at her, about rip into her face- _

 

She screamed and jolted up, untangling herself from her bedroll. Once she was on her two feet, she stumbled backwards, her arms nearly pinwheeling. She tripped when her feet became entangled in Solas’s empty bedroll, landing roughly on her rump. She winced and gasped for breath, eyes glued to her bedroll. There was nothing there. No bloodthirsty beast charging at her and attempting to kill her. There was movement from within the folds of her bedroll. Her body tensed.

 

From under the covers, a grey face with a muzzle popped out, its gaze locking onto her as though it was sad and worried. Her heart started beating again and she exhaled sharply. She’d completely forgotten about the mabari pup. That must have been it sleeping on her stomach - exactly where she didn’t want it for precisely this reason. Why had it moved up on top of her, anyway? It seemed perfectly content down on the ground.

 

She saw Solas approaching quickly from out of the corner of her eye. She stood back up, rubbing her offended arse, and went ahead and waved it off to show him she was fine. When she looked directly at him, she saw that he looked rigid, his hand gripped tightly on his staff. There were small crystals of air dangling in the air around him and the temperature dropped. She shook her head and her hands. “I’m sorry. The mabari just startled me.”

 

“You’re okay?” he asked, not looking completely convinced until she nodded in affirmation.

 

She walked back over towards her bedroll slowly once Solas put his staff away and relaxed. The pup didn’t move at all. She kept her eyes glued on Samahl, but for some reason, the closer she got, the sadder the pup looked. Samahl made a shooing gesture with her hands, but the mabari stayed put. She reached down and took hold of the top part of her bedroll and pulled slowly, trying to roll the pup off of it. However, in the heat and confusion of the moment, she was now somehow inside of the bedroll instead of on top. Solas tapped on her arm for her attention. “She thinks she’s done something wrong,” he told her.

 

_ She did, _ Samahl thought bitterly.  _ She shouldn’t have gotten on top of me. _

 

When she looked back down at those sad, almost human-like eyes, she felt a sting of guilt. Somewhere inside her, she knew that it wasn’t really the pup’s fault. It was a young thing, desperate to cling to someone after having been abandoned and then caught in a terrible trap. She’d insisted on saving her, so she shouldn’t be the one to treat her in such a way. Grimacing, Samahl kneeled down from a safe distance away. She set her thumb to the frontside of a fist and pressed it to her chest, rubbing it in circles. The pup didn’t look quite sure what to do. Samahl awkwardly took a breath and said aloud, “Sorry.”

 

That, she got. She leaped from out of the bedroll, her butt wiggling with happiness though she hobbled on three legs. She started taking little bounding movements towards Samahl, but she jerked up to her feet again and shook her hands. Thankfully, the mabari could figure out what that meant. Even though she stopped moving forward, her rear kept wiggling from side to side, her mouth open and tongue out.

 

At least she was off the bedroll. She picked it up and shook it out, trying to free it of the hairs that had clung to it before rolling it up. She’d caught a glance of Solas’s face, which looked rather pleased, just before he’d turned back to what he was doing, which looked to be some sort of meditations. 

 

All while Samahl packed her things up and prepared some breakfast for them, the pup followed her, walking awkwardly on her three legs and trying to figure out what to do with the fourth. Though she felt bad for startling her, it still irked Samahl that the pup had nothing better to do than to follow her every movement like a shadow and get under her feet. Why wasn’t she paying any attention to Solas, who was first to offer her more food and water? Before Solas finished packing up his bag, he told Samahl that they needed to unwrap the leg and check it again, clean it, and put more poultice on it. That, of course, meant it was Samahl’s job to hold her in her lap again. She was fairly certain that she made a terrified noise when the pup lifted its head and brought its tongue out, trying to lick her face. Samahl turned her head as far away as she could, but she still felt the warm, moist tongue make contact with her neck. 

 

“Why don’t you give her a name?” Solas inquired after he’d started to wash the leg, the pup wriggling and trying to squirm away.

 

Samahl kept a tight hold, but her expression was surely enough to send Solas the message:  _ Why would I ever do that? _

 

He worked a little before replying. “I’ve heard of mabari pups imprinting on the person they want to be with. I’m not quite sure what it looks like, but I have a feeling it’s something like this.”

 

Her eyes bulged. Imprinting? She’d read about that, like how animals at birth believe the first thing they see to be their mother. She knew mabaris were slightly different, but she still didn’t quite understand it. All she figured was that Solas meant that they couldn’t drop the pup off with the first person who was willing to take her in. That meant...that they were stuck with her?

 

Her face fell. She was pushing herself enough to just be around the pup for now, but to have her there all the time? That sounded like nothing short of torture. Even just from her being the first thing Samahl saw when she woke made her panic and think that a bloodthirsty hound was trying to kill her. She couldn’t handle that on an every morning basis. The  _ only _ reason his suggestion sounded appealing in any manner was so that she could refer to her as something else other than ‘the pup’ or ‘the mabari’.

 

Still, giving her a name would mean that Samahl would agree to keeping her. While she could admit to herself that yes, the mabari was cute in her own way - as a  _ puppy _ \- she couldn’t help but think of when she would grow up. She would become a stout warhound, bred to do battle. Mabaris were not pets to be coddled. 

 

Then again...she had been thrown out. If she had been discarded by someone, perhaps they thought that she would not have succeeded well in being a warrior. Did that mean that Samahl could possibly alter what she had been bred to do? If she had little to no exposure to battle, would she maybe not seem quite as terrifying to her? She doubted that she would ever truly be a pet and that she would never be frightened of her, but...maybe...maybe she could put forth some effort to try and not be quite as scared?

 

The pup jerked with a lot of strength as Solas reapplied the poultice to the wounds, which had started to bleed again when he’d cleaned them. He tore off a new strip of bandaging to bind it before deeming his work complete. Samahl held the puppy for another few seconds until she calmed down enough. She set her down on the ground, where she proceeded to sniff at her leg yet again.

 

“Heulwen.”

 

Solas furrowed his brows at her in a silent question.

 

“We’ll call her Heulwen.”

 

And so they pressed on, though at a much slower rate than before. Despite her small size, Heulwen was too heavy for one of them to carry for long distances, even if they made a sling for her. Even before they made an attempt at that, she seemed determined enough to keep up with them as best she could. She hobbled along after them, avoiding putting pressure on her mangled leg as much as she could. However, since it wasn’t something she was used to, she seemed to tire out before either of them. They took several breaks throughout the day. They didn’t cover as much distance as Solas appeared to have wanted to, but neither of them were completely exhausted by the end of the day, either. 

 

Just because she’d agreed to give her a name didn’t mean Samahl was magically inclined to be close and cuddly with Heulwen. Solas tried to get Samahl to offer her food and drink, but she wasn’t ready to willingly stick her hand out near teeth. She at least made the attempt to watch how Solas did it. She read his lips as he spoke to the puppy when he offered her food, telling her to be gentle. It certainly didn’t seem to get through to her. She snatched the food away and gobbled it up in seconds. Solas didn’t seem afflicted by it. He just merely shook his head and cupped his hands for water. 

 

Eventually, they found an area well enough to make camp for the evening. Solas set his wards and Samahl went off to practice her arrows after they ate dinner, Heulwen sauntering along after her. It was only when Samahl set her first arrow to the bowstring that she felt something warm brush up against her leg. She nearly jumped out of her skin, only relaxing slightly when she looked down to see the grey and white mabari. She was standing, watching Samahl with intent, though her expression seemed happy. Seeing other movement, Samahl lifted her head and saw Solas approaching her. “Perhaps we could also start to work on some training in the evenings with her.”

 

Samahl balanced the bow and arrow in one hand so that she could sign with her free one. “I don’t know the first thing about training dogs! Do you?”

 

He arched a brow and gave a small shrug of his shoulders. “Not much, but they say mabaris are highly intelligent. I assume some repetition and rewards should suffice?”

 

She pursed her lips and frowned. “How can I train her? I can’t speak to her.”

 

“I have heard of warriors who trained them to respond to certain sounds, like whistles. Surely the same could be said of gestures.”

 

She pieced what he was saying together. “You mean...teach her how to understand signs? Is that possible?”

 

“There’s only one way to find out.”

 

It took several long moments of Samahl staring into Heulwen’s eyes before she couldn’t deny that she was fascinated by the idea to try and teach her how to obey commands via signing. She gathered her things back up and they walked back to the fire. The two elves sat beside each other and the mabari stood before them, glancing between them. Samahl tapped a finger on her thigh in thought. “Sit is normally a basic thing, right? Should we try and start there? Can we with her leg?”

 

“She’s been finding a way to sit without hurting it. We’ll just have to be gentle in showing her.”

 

“What if,” she averted her gaze, “she doesn’t like us showing her and she...tries to bite?”

 

“I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

 

“She bit you just yesterday!” Without thinking, she reached out and took hold of his hand, gesturing to the red marks still left behind.

 

“She was frightened and in pain. It was a natural reaction. Here, tell you what.” Solas shifted around so that he was facing Samahl, then put a little distance between them. “Have her here, then I’ll push her down when you give her the signal to sit. That way, if she were to try and bite, she’ll go for me and not you. How does that sound?”

 

It didn’t sound like the safest solution, but Samahl nodded in agreement. She patted the ground between them, looking at Heulwen. Thankfully, she got the message easily enough and happily moved over to where she was facing Samahl and had her back to Solas. Samahl then made sure Solas was ready before she brought a hand up and made a cup with her, her thumb resting at the side of her digits, which were pointed up. Heulwen looked puzzled at the gesture, then glanced back quickly in confusion as Solas applied pressure to her rump, quickly forcing her down into a sit. She made sure to keep her mangled leg sticking out slightly, so it appeared as though she were only sitting on half of her rump instead of all of it.

 

Samahl then froze. He said reward, didn’t he? What was she supposed to reward her with? They didn’t have food to spare. 

 

Solas had the answer, as he usually did. He reached out with a hand and rubbed the top of her head several times. She seemed rather satisfied with this, leaning into his touch and panting in such a way that made it seem as though she was grinning. Samahl watched, both with worry and intrigue, but when nothing happened, she eased a little. 

 

They practiced with Heulwen for some time and it startled Samahl how intelligent the canine really was. She quickly caught onto sit within about thirty minutes. They had started working on lay down, but after several failed rounds, they decided to call it quits for the evening. Besides, Heulwen had seemed to be losing interest anyways.

 

Solas offered to meet with Samahl in the Fade, assuring her that his wards were well placed and they were far away from the main road and from the area bandits would use to stalk alongside it. She couldn’t suppress her grin as she agreed. She made sure that Heulwen was far away from her head again before she even tried to close her eyes to fall asleep.

 

* * *

 

_ Solas regaled her with more stories of what he’d learned and what he’d come across in his journeys through the Fade. He wove her pictures and stories of temples, of battles, and of the Elven Pantheon. When he spoke of the Evanuris, his demeanor seemed to shift slightly. Samahl caught those small changes. He didn’t seem as enthused. His eyes weren’t as bright. His tone dropped ever so slightly - perhaps the change she was most excited to be able to notice. _

 

_ He first told the basic information of them. What they were known for, how they were worshipped, and so on. When Samahl asked if he knew anything more, he seemed hesitant before replying to her. He frowned with concentration, as though digging through memories. When he finally began to speak again, his words were slow, but not fumbling.  _

 

_ Then again...he never had, had he? _

 

_ His words had never come out of him, stumbling. They always came straight, but usually with the same expression of focus. _

 

_ Samahl thought to when she would tell him stories or try to recollect a memory. She stumbled with her words and signs. She struggled to sometimes remember how to describe something, so she’d make vague gestures to try and force it from her thoughts. She sometimes blanked on details altogether and fell silent as she tried to piece it together. Solas never did any of those things. _

 

_ But what did it mean? She wasn’t sure what all was involved with the powers of a somniari. Perhaps he could see things she could not within the Fade. Perhaps he could see images moving in the background, reenacting the things he’d seen before, but she could not. But even then, his eyes were always either down or directed at her. He never stared off into the distance. _

 

_ What did that mean? It seemed almost rude to her to ask, but it was a question itching away at her brain. _

 

_ “...until Mythal stepped in to stop the war that he’d begun. That thoroughly put a stop to-... Samahl?” _

 

_ She blinked and jolted a little. Had she been staring? She had definitely zoned out. “Y-yes?” _

 

_ “Am I going too fast?” Solas inquired gently. “I’m sorry. I can back up some if-” _

 

_ “No, no,” she interrupted with a shake of her hands. “I was just...wondering something.” _

 

_ “What is that?” _

 

_ “How are you able to recall all of this so clearly?” _

 

_ His face seemed to freeze for only the span of a blink of an eye before he replied, “I’ve seen it so many times. I’ve gone into the Fade countless times to try and study every detail I could about everything I’ve discovered.” _

 

_ For some reason, this answer didn’t sit well with Samahl. She pursed her lips and took in a sharp breath. “You know you can tell me the truth,” she mumbled. She saw a flash of conflict pass through Solas’s expression, but no words came from him. She shook her head and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. Forget I said anything. Go ahead, please.” _

 

_ He didn’t seem wholly convinced, but after a few seconds of what seemed to be an internal struggle, he continued on with his story, Samahl doing her best to listen, asking questions where she could. _

 

_ Everyone had their secrets, she figured she needed to accept that. It just didn’t feel quite right when she was such an open person. She knew some secrets, such as life-affecting ones, were better off kept, to lessen the amount of people who knew about it, lessening the amount of damage it could have to the individual. Even then, Samahl would have felt better if Solas would just come out and say: “I have things I can’t tell you.” _

 

_ She would get the point. Sure, it would still bug and pester her that she didn’t know what it was, but she would at least understand that it was something important to him and perhaps something that could harm him. Still, she needed to remind herself it had only been weeks since they’d first met. It was only natural that he wouldn’t trust her just yet. For her, Solas just felt like a person she could just share everything with and he would never turn his back on her or betray her. She couldn’t quite understand why she felt that way towards him, especially since she didn’t have that sort of relationship with anyone else before. _

 

_ To think that he didn’t feel the same way about her stung a little. _

 

_ “Solas.” _

 

_ Samahl tilted her head. She recognized that voice slightly. When she shifted her gaze, she jumped ever so slightly, not used to the sight of a spirit. Wisdom hovered in the air not far away from them. Solas raised his eyebrows. “Ah, Wisdom. Samahl, this is-” _

 

_ “We’ve met,” Wisdom assured him. “I apologize for interrupting, but I found something that I think may be of interest to you.” _

 

_ He looked a little puzzled at her informing him that the two were acquainted, but he seemed to hook onto the latter part of her sentence. He glanced back at Samahl. “I’m sorry, do you mind?” _

 

_ “No, go ahead,” she assured him. _

 

_ He rose from the spot where they’d been seated on the ground, sharing soft words with Wisdom. Samahl was content just staying put and enjoying the rest of the evening in solitude, but Wisdom glanced back at her over her shoulder. “You don’t have to stay there, ma falon. Why don’t you come along with us?” _

 

_ “I wouldn’t want to intrude on-” _

 

_ “Nonsense.” Wisdom flitted down to Samahl’s side and took on a slightly more physical form. She reached down and helped tugged Samahl to her feet, then looped an arm through hers. “We don’t want to be separated, so it’s best that you hold onto me, okay?” _

 

_ “O-okay…” Samahl kept her arm relaxed with Wisdom’s. She looked at Solas’s back as he looked around their surroundings. What was going on? What was he looking for and what was Wisdom talking about, being separated? _

 

_ She squinted, her brows furrowing. Off to the side and not far from in front of Solas, hovered a small blue flame that seemed to be bobbing up and down in the air on purpose. She was about to point it out to him when he spotted it and started walking towards it. Wisdom began to follow after him, pulling Samahl along with her. As Solas grew close to the little flame, it shot up in the air and jumped about in small circles before moving off in a different direction. “...What is that?” she asked Wisdom softly. _

 

_ “It is a whisp. It doesn’t have enough purpose to become a spirit just yet, but it still has a conscious in order to move about on its own,” she explained sagely. “Our little friend has found something of interest to Solas and wants to show him where it is.” _

 

_ “What is it?” _

 

_ “You will see soon enough.” _

 

_ Samahl huffed quietly, but didn’t ask anything more. She walked side by side with Wisdom and trailed along after Solas, who had become rather quiet as he focused on the whisp. Around them, the scenery of the Fade shifted multiple times. After several steps, they were walking along the edge of a deep lake. They turned to a different direction and it melted to become a field with rolling hills. They ascended to the top of one of the hills and as they began going down, it became a sandy desert. Then a swamp, an oasis, a waterfall, and a place filled with strange trees that Samahl had never seen before. _

 

_ The whisp seemed to have made a little sound, a sort of strange chirping noise that Samahl had learned birds made. It stopped moving and bounced up and down in a spot, seeming rather excited. Or at least Samahl thought, for a being with no face or features to be able to discern information from. Solas took his final few steps towards it and the area around them changed one last time.  _

 

_ In the ground around them, there were tall stakes in the ground with vines growing up them. Samahl glanced at them and saw grape bunches on most of them. Wisdom hummed thoughtfully. “A vineyard. Interesting.” _

 

_ “The vineyard isn’t what we’re here for,” Solas said, looking off into the distance. _

 

_ Samahl followed his line of sight and on top of a hill that was relatively nearby, a golden building stood atop it, a few columns crumbled and parts of the walls didn’t quite look the same, indicating that it had been repaired. Still, the architecture of it was unlike anything Samahl had seen except for her dreams, which could only mean that it was likely an ancient elvhen building. But where were they? _

 

_ “A place full of vineyards… Bright sunshine… And the sound of waves.” Solas shifted to look back at the woman and spirit. “Is this Antiva?” _

 

_ “That it is,” confirmed Wisdom. _

 

_ “That’s a temple?” Samahl questioned, finally unlooping her arm from Wisdom’s. “It looks to be in amazing shape.” _

 

_ “It does,” Solas agreed. “It looks better than any others I have come across.” _

 

_ Something within Samahl buzzed with excitement. She could feel it bubbling up in her chest. “Does that mean…?” _

 

_ “Yes. Our next destination will be Antiva.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, everyone! I do have an announcement for those of you who do not follow my Tumblr: This will be my last chapter for a little while, because I am getting married! We are going away to Norway and will be gone for several weeks, so the earliest I'll be able to start writing again will be in September. Really, as far as updates go for this story, I suppose that isn't as much longer of a wait as normal, but I wanted to give you all the heads up!
> 
> Our next leg of the journey will take us out of Ferelden and up into Antiva! I hope you're all excited for it! I'll see you all soon. <3


	6. Chapter 6

The journey to Antiva brought with it many things. Firstly, when Samahl realized that in order to get to Antiva, the closest way was to cross the Waking Sea, she tried to plead with Solas that they just go around. She had no fear of the sea, but even just thinking about it made her remember her parents and what had happened to them shortly after landing on the other side of the water. Solas gave her an apologetic look, but he informed her that if they tried to go around, it would easily add a month and a half to two months of travel instead of doing it in a couple of weeks. Her shoulders sagged, but she agreed to it, telling him that she understood.

 

She just knew she would have to face it and get it over with.

 

As they traveled back north, to where they would find a harbor to get them across, they continued their work with Heulwen. It was clear that neither of them were trainers by any means, but thankfully on Heulwen’s behalf, she was quite intelligent. She quickly learned her signs for sitting, laying down, staying, and coming. That seemed to be the easy part. Any time during their travels, while they were avoiding the main roads and they neared other people, Heulwen would go on alert, but she never conveyed it well. Samahl would just take note on how the mabari would stiffen and freeze for a moment to listen, then keep her eyes pointed in the same direction as she kept moving. Solas tried to implement something to get her to give Samahl some sort of sign, but nothing was clicking yet.

 

By some miracle and close encounters, they managed to avoid battle. As much as Samahl was ready to prove that she could handle herself, judging by how much she was progressing with her shooting, she wasn’t entirely keen on being bloodthirsty. She just felt like it was all her fault that they were avoiding the roads and avoiding contact with people, despite the fact that Solas assured her again and again that it was because of him being a mage. He said that he didn’t want to put her in danger.

 

Each time he mentioned that, her stomach would do little flips and she couldn’t argue any further. She was starting to think that he knew he could win if he said that. 

 

Once they entered a small town with a port, Solas tried to keep their ears covered as much as he could, though Samahl though it would still be too obvious that they were elves due to their foot wrappings. Humans didn’t go wandering around with those on. However, it seemed that it helped, somewhat. Or maybe it was Heulwen’s presence. Either way, she kept an eye on all the people who shot them ugly looks, making sure that they weren’t going to be jumped at any moment. Solas spoke some quick business with whoever it was that owned the boat that they would be traveling on. He took hold of Samahl’s hand to lead her on board, where they went below deck and settled in, shoved in among sacks of food. Heulwen looked particularly unhappy about being on the boat, seeing as she paced back and forth for quite some time before settling down close by.

 

“Why are we in this small room?” Samahl inquired, trying to take deep breaths and not think about the journey ahead on the rough waters.

 

“We don’t have too many options,” he replied, his face apologetic. “It’s lucky enough that they will take us knowing we are elves and we have a mabari. Here, at least, we should be relatively undisturbed.”

 

She furrowed her brows and pulled her knees up to her chest, eyes cast down at the floor. She remembered how cramped and claustrophobic it was the first time around, but this time wasn’t feeling much better. Just instead of bodies all crammed together, it was sacks of food and, out of all damn things, a warhound. She didn’t like the idea of Heulwen being on a boat, especially when there was clearly nowhere proper for her to relieve herself. Hopefully the trip would be quick.

 

As quick as one could travel on the Waking Sea, that is.

 

Solas’s fingers brushed against her arm before he set a hand on her back and rubbed gently, drawing her attention. His eyes were sad, his figure seeming to sag, the shadows of his hood creeping along the features of his face. “I’m sorry. If this wasn’t an urgent thing, I wouldn’t insist on this so much. I completely understand if you-”

 

She shook her head almost instantly, though her expression didn’t change much. “I’m coming with you. Although...can I ask a question?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Why is it so urgent?”

 

Again. The way he tensed and went entirely still while his rush of thoughts and emotions swirled in his eyes was now not unfamiliar to her. She sighed softly, unable to contain her disappointment that he couldn’t be fully honest with her and started to turn her head away before his hands began to move again.

 

“I must see what is within this temple. The information I could find there would be...quite useful.”

 

“For what?”

 

“A...personal goal.”

 

This piqued her interest. She clearly guessed he had his own reasons for wandering the countryside looking for old elvhen ruins and for venturing into towns to take a look at alienages. She’d never really figured out what those reasons could possibly be. Still, something told her that he was compromising. He had been very secretive so far. This was more than he’d given her before, so she doubted she would receive much else. Still, she pried, “Is it too personal?”

 

Regret flashed in his eyes, the sadness still looming. “I’m afraid so.”

 

It was strange. Part of her felt some slight relief. He was still keeping his secrets close to his chest, but he’d at least...almost given her  _ something _ . He hinted, but couldn’t give her the full picture. Yet that small thing gave her some hope. Hope that he may yet trust her with the entirety. She gave him a half smile. “It’s okay. Maybe one day, you can tell me everything.”

 

It surprised her when he said, with almost no hesitation, “I would like that very much.”

 

She knew not what else to say, so she fell silent.

 

The ship was as unpleasant as she’d thought up in her head. The horrid rocking and swaying made her stomach churn and bile burn at her throat. She tried so many things - curling up tight, deep breaths, looking up, watching a fixed point on the wall across from where she was - but nothing seemed to help. Noticing her discomfort, Solas held out a hand towards her, palm out, and his hand gleamed for a few moments. A cooling sensation caressed her body and for the first time in well over an hour, she felt as though she could draw a fresh breath of air. That alone helped some and she tried to give him a look of thanks, but she was fairly certain it just seemed like a grimace.

 

Heulwen paced and was tossed about the room, being thrown into the sacks. Her eyes shone with panic and she kept looking to Samahl, who thoroughly did not want the mabari to be thrown against  _ her _ . She was having a hard enough time keeping herself sane that if Heulwen landed on top of her, she may possibly lose it. It was a tiny enough room as it was. She just wished that Heulwen would just calm down.

 

Poor Samahl had not considered how long this journey would be. Just the first few hours felt like some torture from hell, but they had days to go to get across the water. By time evening came, she felt sick and trapped, wanting to be anywhere but there on that ship. Solas tried to console her and distract her, but not much could hold her focus when she felt like the ship was rocking so harshly from side to side that it was going to capsize. She had managed to close her eyes at one point, leaning against a sack of potatoes, but all too quickly, she was jerked away by exactly what she had predicted - Heulwen bumping against her. She yelped and jumped to her feet, but she had nowhere to move to. Her back was to the wall, food was on her left, and Solas was on her right. The mabari looked at her with a slightly happier look when she saw Samahl up, but seemed to understand quickly that she did not feel the same. Heulwen lowered her head slightly and put some distance between them. Solas gently took her wrist and tugged her back down.

 

Only pure exhaustion got her to sleep at all that night. She didn’t wake in the Fade. She only remembered darkness, but when she regained consciousness, she felt rather warm on one side. Thinking it was Heulwen trying to snuggle with her again, she inhaled sharply and sat upright at an alarming speed. However, Heulwen wasn’t the source. She was curled up, but awake, a couple feet in front of her. Realization hit her and her cheeks warmed. Slowly turning her head, she saw Solas shifted about some, but he didn’t open his eyes just yet. At some point, she’d tipped and leaned on him in her sleep.

 

She was tempted to try and rest some more, but with a pitching movement in the ship, an urge hit her and she knew she needed to find somewhere to relieve herself. By time she returned, very wobbly on her feet, Solas was awake and seemed tense. When she entered back into the room, he appeared to relax somewhat.

 

It was days before the violent rocking started to cease. Samahl could tell from the first moment that it wasn’t nearly as bad and excitement bubbled in her chest. She had lost track of how long she’d been confined in that room. She had at least been able to eventually focus on Solas as he told her more of what he learned from the Fade as far as the ancients were concerned. Focusing as best she could, she attempted to commit it all to memory. Not only the stories, but the way he told them. It seemed as though it took no effort. There were rarely pauses, no furrowed brows that were connected with recollection, and a look of longing and remembrance would gleam in his eyes. 

 

As though he had lived it. But that was impossible. He did say that he had delved into multiple memories time and again to make sure he had gotten absolutely everything out of it, but...could one person really remember so much, so many minute details? Perhaps he had some magic spell that helped him with that as well. She had no idea as to the limits of magic. Even if he tried to explain it to her, she likely wouldn’t grasp it all that well.

 

The ship finally jolted and came to a still. She looked at Solas with the brightest smile she’d had in days and all but leapt to her feet. Land! They had to be at their harbor! She would never complain about walking ever again if it just meant that she didn’t need to cross that awful body of water anytime soon. Heulwen seemed to be just as excited as her, spinning in circles - though it was more of an excited hobble, thanks to her leg - and her butt wriggling about.

 

Solas unfortunately reigned them in. “We need to wait before we disembark.”

 

“Why?” Samahl demanded, almost immediately falling into a pout.

 

“It was a part of the deal. One of the crew will tell us when we can leave. I don’t think they want their other passengers to see that they allowed elves aboard.”

 

The thought irritated Samahl while within another part of her, an alarm went off. She started to panic and think the worst - perhaps the crew didn’t really want to let them go. Maybe they were secretly pirates or slavers and were just going to try and capture them. Hopefully that wasn’t the case, but she hadn’t exactly had much luck regarding humans. Or other elves, for that matter. Just anyone. She didn’t care much for any peoples.

 

Except Solas. He was an exception.

 

Much to her relief, her worst thoughts did not bear fruit. A young man stuck his head through the door and spoke quickly, making a gesture. Solas stood and nodded to Samahl, throwing his hood on. She followed suit, Heulwen bringing up the rear and together, the three made it off the ship safely and walked out into the rain. She looked back towards the water and watched the waves for a moment, whitecaps present everywhere with strong winds blowing against her, nearly flinging her hood off. Heulwen nearly bumped against her leg, which snapped her back into the moment. She needed to keep moving and not fall behind.

 

She trailed after Solas, her movements a little wobbly. She was on solid ground, but she still felt like she was on the ship. She watched a fixed point on the ground, but she couldn’t get her legs to move her in a straight line. For what it was worth, it looked like Solas was a little unsteady as well.

 

They didn’t move on too far, which she was a little grateful for. It was irritating not having her body moving the way she wanted. They kept their heads low as they moved throughout the harbor town. Solas bargained for some food that would last them until they got further into the Free Marches. He also took her towards a small clothing stall, run by a dwarf couple.

 

“You could use some new clothes,” Solas explained to her. “You can’t continue running about in that dress, especially not here. I doubt the landscape will be as forgiving.”

 

She nodded in agreement. The dwarves spoke to them, Solas translating when she couldn’t read their lips. With a little bit of conversing, Solas gestured for her to approach and find some better traveling clothes. The woman dwarf assisted her in selecting sizes and making recommendations, which Samahl appreciated. She made sure her clothes would be comfortable and breathable - her dress had been a bit warm and restrictive to move in, especially with the bow and arrow. She ended up with a short sleeved tunic that tucked into her leggings. The foot wrappings she received from Solas wound up from her feet to her calves, ending just below her knees. Since she had her cloak, she didn’t get a sweater to wear overtop it, especially since they were heading towards a much warmer climate. She also ended up with a sash for around her waist and the dwarves were kind enough to throw in an undershirt for her that had three-quarter length sleeves for free. Solas paid them - with Samahl eyeballing his money pouch, thinking that it hadn’t seemed to have depleted much since their journey together began - and they thanked them before going on their way.

 

They left the town, Samahl keeping her new clothes in her sack until she found a better moment to change out of her dress. They walked in the rain until the city was out of sight. Solas then veered off from the path, searching for some form of shelter they could use for the evening. It took some time of slogging through the mud before they finally found a small formation of rocks that worked as a small barrier from the rain, but it would be tight quarters for them. Thankfully, without having to ask, Solas called Heulwen to his other side so that he would be between the two. She gave him a grateful look after glancing at the mabari with a hint of uncertainty.

 

With all the rain, it meant that they couldn’t build a fire. Solas did summon a rather large flame to hover in front of them and warm and dry them. Samahl stared rather intently into the orb of fire, her mind still thinking about the pouch of money, for some reason. She hadn’t seen him trade anything to anyone in exchange for coin. He hadn’t sold anything. He didn’t do anything that earned money. So how was it that he didn’t seem to run low? Was he secretly carrying a ridiculous amount somewhere in his bag? Surely not. That would be too much added weight to be carrying day after day. He definitely wasn’t stealing any. He wouldn’t do anything that could cause severe backlash and draw attention to them.

 

No matter how much she thought, she couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer. That was when magical, glowing letters hovered in front of her face:  _ Samahl? _

 

She blinked and tilted her head towards Solas, who was casting a look of puzzlement at her. “Are you okay?” he signed. “You seem like you’re in very deep thought. Or are you still feeling ill from the ship?”

 

Sure, her stomach was still settling down, but...no. She shook her head. “I’m feeling better. I’m just thinking.”

 

“About?”

 

“Probably something trivial.” She shrugged. “I think I’m also just exhausted. Sleeping on solid ground will do a world of good.”

 

He nodded in agreement. “I got much more rest on the journey. Why don’t you sleep for all of tonight? I’ll keep watch.”

 

Her brows immediately knit together. “No,” she replied quickly. “You don’t need to do that. I don’t want to be dead weight.”

 

“You aren’t,” he assured her, his face gentle and genuine. “It’s just a matter of fact. I managed to rest more than you. Not to mention, I forced you to come along in that manner with me. I’m sorry that we had to take the ship instead of going by land, but it would have just taken far too long. It was clearly unpleasant for you and I regret that.”

 

What was she supposed to say to that? “You didn’t force me into anything. I chose to go on the boat.”

 

“Still. I insist. Why don’t you get some rest?”

 

Her eyes were very heavy and undoubtedly red, that much was certain. But the thought of Solas sitting up all night, staring into the darkness with the falling rain just seemed...well, unfair was too weak of a word. Still, a part of her was already sagging and relaxing, the lull of sleep sounding all too good. She repositioned herself so that she would be able to lay down somewhat and curl up without being in his  way. “Promise me you’ll wake me if you need me?”

 

“I promise. Goodnight, Samahl.”

 

“...Goodnight.”

 

She didn’t even remember her head touching down on her sack, which she was using as a pillow, before darkness claimed her. 

 

* * *

 

_ Her dreams were scattered and meaningless, all sorts of things happening rapidly and transitioning in ways that made no sense. She would see people walking by in a crowded street, then be standing on the edge of a cliff, alone and in a storm. She saw elves - both city and Dalish - casting looks at her, then turning their backs. The hot sun beat down on her as she saw a line of mabaris marching out towards a large group of people in black armor. She blinked and she was in a quiet grove under the moonlight. The small pond that was there suddenly splashed up, much like the Waking Sea, and engulfed her, but when she took a deep breath of air, she was standing in a golden building. Things settled down. The scene stopped changing. She took a breath of air and it didn’t smell fresh - it was musty and thick. She coughed and looked around. Where was she? _

 

_ “Ah, Samahl.” _

 

_ Hearing a voice that wasn’t Solas’s startled her, but she took a moment to recognize it. She turned and looked for the source, relaxing when it was who she thought it was. “Wisdom.” _

 

_ “Hello. It has been a short while.” _

 

_ “It’s...not been a pleasant week.” _

 

_ “Oh...your journey across the Waking Sea. Solas mentioned it to me.” _

 

_ Samahl couldn’t help but give Wisdom a bewildered look. “How could he focus enough to even come into the Fade?” _

 

_ A knowing smile tugged at her lips, though it seemed a little sad as well. “For him, being in the Fade is as easy as breathing. It doesn’t require much concentration. But yes, he told me about it and he did say that it wasn’t easy for you.” _

 

_ “...Ah,” was all she could say, tilting her head down.  _

 

_ “You have nothing to be ashamed of,” Wisdom scolded. “Come now, lift your head up.” As Samahl obliged, the spirit glanced around, as if making sure no one were nearby, listening. “I must say, he was quite guilty and flustered.” _

 

_ “He-...he was?” _

 

_ “Oh, yes. He felt like it was his fault that he’d made you uncomfortable - in more ways than one. First with your mabari, now with this.” _

 

_ “What- No! I insisted we save Heulwen, I just wasn’t...expecting what came after. I did that to myself, he has nothing to be guilty of there. And I already told him that as far as the ship was concerned, I made the decision to get on it myself. He didn’t grab me and force me on. He mentioned before we boarded that I could stay if I wanted, but…” _

 

_ She trailed off, leaving a void of silence. Wisdom hummed thoughtfully before saying nonchalantly, “You don’t want to be separated from him.” _

 

_ The all too familiar burning sensation on her cheeks and ears came to her skin. She raised her eyes to meet Wisdom’s. “...No. I don’t. But I...wonder if I’m just a hindrance to him.” _

 

_ “You mostly certainly are not. I think you are quite a good influence on him.” Wisdom crossed her arms and nodded decisively. _

 

_ “Me? How?” _

 

_ “You are headstrong, but gentle. Determined, but shy. You have an eager thirst for knowledge, which I know he is all too happy to quench.” _

 

_ “But does he trust me?” she blurted. Realizing she’d said it aloud, she cleared her throat and shook her head. “No, nevermind.” _

 

_ “Ma falon…” The expression on Wisdom’s face was not unlike the sad restraint she’d seen on Solas’s before. “Solas is...a man with many secrets. He is a man with a complicated past. But I thoroughly believe that he will come to see that he can trust you with those secrets. Does he trust you? I believe wholeheartedly that he does. However, these secrets aren’t something to be told lightly, for they can put people in danger. If he hasn’t told you yet, he is certainly trying to protect you.” _

 

_ “He shouldn't have to bear them alone, though.” _

 

_ “On that, we agree. He is a stubborn man, though. He feels like he can shoulder many, many things alone. Just be patient with him. I think he may come to the realization sooner than you think.” _

 

_ “The...realization?” _

 

_ “Yes.” Her smile returned. “That you won’t leave him, even after learning his secrets.” _

 

_ Samahl frowned and started to ask Wisdom another question, but she felt a violent shove on her body and- _

 

* * *

 

-she grunted as she felt her body being shoved into a slight roll. She nearly scrambled to her feet when she saw that it had been Heulwen, pushing at her with her large head, but in the next moment, she saw Solas on his feet, alert, staff in hand and glaring into the darkness. She immediately felt around for her bow and arrows, trying to stand up beside him. She dared not lower her weapon to ask him what was happening.

 

Because her question was answered when she saw an arrow fly from the shadows and right towards her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone!! I'm terribly sorry about the long wait. Real life has been hectic, even after getting back from my trip. I hope this chapter was worth the wait! I had been planning to mostly jump into Antiva, but clearly that was NOT on the story's agenda. I guess it's better that way, though.
> 
> Danger, danger~ Samahl is about to have her first real battle! How is she gonna fare? She's gotta deal with that arrow flying at her face first...
> 
> I'll see you all soon! Thanks for reading! <3


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